I was disappointed with the book, especially given the access and background available to the author. She should have decided if this was a book on Petreaus, his background and leadership, or whether it was a book on the Afghanistan war, or on the Iraq war. All could have been covered, but bouncing across topics and time weakened the presentation. In place she seems to have lost objectivity and presented a one-sided view of positions. When those lapses in objective completeness showed up, it caused me to question the completeness of the rest of the material.

Granted, a solid biography or history of either war will not, cannot, be written for a number of years. The material is still coming to light and including all the relevant facts, correlating actions wit actual results will take time.