[From the jacket] What is the true story of [George W. Bush's Iraq] surge? And was it really a success? Those are the questions that … Finkel grapples with in his remarkable report from the front lines. … And in telling the story of these good soldiers [of Battalion 2-16 in Baghdad], the heroes and the ruined, Finkel has also produced an eternal tale—not just of the Iraq War, but of all wars, for all time.