(Naval Institute Press) In this memoir, the author, a retired foreign-service officer and fiction writer, recounts his time in Iraq in 2004-05 and provides insight into the Iraqi insurgency and Coalition counterinsurgency strategy. Earle — recruited by the first U.S. ambassador to Iraq, John Negroponte, to serve as his strategist — examines the conflicting factors that have made Iraq such an intractable international crisis. Earle has held senior positions in the U.S. foreign affairs and intelligence communities for 25 years.