The Good Soldiers : a chat with author David Finkel

In 2007, American troops began the surge in Iraq. David Finkel, a Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter for The Washington Post, was embedded for eight months with a battalion from Fort Riley, Kansas. He chronicled the surge from their post on the outskirts of Baghdad. At the center of the story is Col. Ralph Kauzlarich, a tough optimist whose motto is "It's all good."

Mr. Finkel, 54, answered questions this week, via e-mail, from a Times deputy foreign editor, Ian Fisher. Read the entire article at the New York Times.