It is an exercise sure to drive reasonable people a little bit crazy. Just look back over the last five years and start asking “what if?”

As in “What if all the high school graduates in Ohio had shown up to vote in 2004?”

Or: “What if the Humvee those Marines were in had real armor on it?”

Or: “What if somewhere in the war planning, someone had whispered ‘Vietnam’?”

After a while, after maybe half a dozen “what ifs,” there is a maddening sense of waste and of letting some of the best things about us slip away.

If you keep at it long enough, consider what might have been had we not lost our way, you come inevitably to opportunities lost and goodwill squandered and good people badly used.

“What if George W. Bush had discovered books earlier and been slipped a copy of Johnny Got His Gun or All Quiet On The Western Front or Catch-22?”

It is an exercise that can really make you want to pound a hard surface, again and again.

Today, at 4 p.m., people will gather in Burnside Park across from the Providence Biltmore in downtown, then march to the State House for a rally to mark the beginning of the sixth year of the war in Iraq.

Yup, this war is in its sixth year and there’s just no end in sight. Remember those giddy predictions of quick victory, of a warm, flower-strewn welcome? That fantasy quickly gave way to the hard reality of buried explosive devices and Iraqis who hate Iraqis. It gave way to the deadly insult of American forces sent to war ill-equipped and ill-prepared for an enemy they would seldom see.

So today there is the march and rally as there was a march and rally a year ago and the year before that. The march will pass Providence Place mall, one of the facilities provided for people who really don’t want to think about war and would rather shop.

If there is anything these last five years have shown us it is the amazing American ability to pile up layer after layer of cultural irrelevance to keep us from seeing the hard war losses suffered by other people’s families. So a walk up Francis Street in the March chill might be a tough sell.

There will be familiar faces in the line of march to the State House. There will be people who have been at it for a while, who just can’t let the craziness go on without at least pointing out how crazy it really is. The event is sponsored by the Rhode Island Spring Mobilization Committee.

There is just no way of knowing if the numbers will be up this year, if the obscene deceptions of the war, its growing death toll and its continuing drag on our standing in the world will add up to real citizen outrage and thousands at the rally — or if it will be just too tough to find a parking place.

In the meantime, let’s get back to “what if?” and maybe a few good shots at the refrigerator door.

“What if diplomacy had been allowed to take its course?”

“What if senators had followed their minds and conscience in deciding whether to allow the president to send in the troops?”

“What if we had embraced all that goodwill that flooded over us after 9/11 and kept most of the world with us?”

“What if that guy down the street was still home with his family?”

And the biggie:

“What if all those hundreds of billions of dollars flushed down the toilet in Iraq could be used to rebuild roads and bridges and schools and provide decent housing and restore programs for the poor and the homeless and …”

It’s tough to avoid, isn’t it? So much to do and so little left to get it done.

bkerr@projo.com