The inside story of the first female general ever to command troops in a combat zone, and of how the scandal of Abu Ghraib destroyed her career. It traces the rise of a groundbreaking woman from the Republican suburbs of New Jersey to a commanding position in a man's army. She earned her insignia as a master parachutist, received the Bronze Star in the first Gulf War, and as the leader chosen for a special mission to train Arab women as a fighting force in the Middle East. In Iraq, she and her 3,400 soldiers faced the challenge of rebuilding a civilian prison system. She describes how Saddam refused to believe she could be in charge of his incarceration. In the end, she accepts her share of responsibility for the abuses of Abu Ghraib, but raises the question of why she was the most prominent target of the investigations.--From publisher description.