Don Eberly was a deputy assistant to George W Bush, in the months and weeks before and after the 'liberation' of Iraq, and brings a personal insider's account into the secret processes involved - the secret planning processes with all their doubts and complexities; attempts to set up a new government amidst lawlessness and looting; painfully vexing policy decisions set against the discovery of Saddam's torture chambers and obscene lavish personal palaces; the failure of senior, policy-making officials - both civilian and military - to recognize the reality of Iraq, and the decisions forced on military troops as peace-keepers by politicians in the face of all facts, utterly out of touch with reality. Written in a clear, practical style, "Liberate and Leave" offers a much-needed insight into how the ways of war and the ways of the world change inevitable intersect and change in our day, and how the chance to build a stable country was utterly missed by those in command who should have known better.