There was guarded optimism on the FOB when I arrived in Ramadi. The Ready First was preparing to rotate out, and the counterinsurgency plan was viewed as moving slowly to success. In closing remarks to his platoons, [V. J. Tedesco III] noted with pride that the inkblot strategy was now going to Baghdad. "When they talk about 'the surge,'" he said,...

Carlos Brown Is a Hero (No Matter What He Says); I've known him since the seventh grade, when he was awkward, obnoxious, and unpopular with the girls (okay, we both were). He always said he was going to be a surgeon, and when the Navy sent him to Iraq, I flew there to see him. I watched him work around the clock to save soldiers and civilians, Amer...