Nights in the Pink Motel:
An American Strategist’s
Pursuit of Peace in Iraq
Robert Earle, Naval Institute
Press, 2008, $34.95, hardcover,
288 pages.
This firsthand account of the
2004-2005 effort to reverse the
negative consequences of the
U.S.-led occupation of Iraq offers readers a dramatic
and comprehensive look at all of the conflicting factors
that havemade Iraq such an intractable crisis. The first
historical account of the post–Coalition Provisional
Authority era, Nights in the PinkMotel is full of unique
details and insights that only an insider could provide.
Retired FSO Robert Earle was recruited as a strategist
by John Negroponte, the first U.S. ambassador to
Iraq, sent to take over from the CPA in 2004. Earle
recounts his experience helping to formulate the comprehensive
counterinsurgency strategy issued jointly
by Amb. Negroponte and Multinational Force-Iraq
Commanding General George Casey and analyzing
the evolution of Iraqi politics.

As a Senior FSO with USIA, Robert Earle received
AFSA’s Christian A. Herter Award for Constructive
Dissent in 1992 for outstanding leadership, initiative,
creativity and energy in helping to advance U.S.-
Mexican relations while minister counselor for public
affairs in Mexico City. Following retirement from the
Foreign Service, he served as a speechwriter for then-
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Negroponte and completed
his first novel, The Way Home (DayBue
Publishing, 2003). He interrupted work on his second
novel, set in the ancient Middle East, to take up the
Iraq assignment.