Summary

Chapter 17 describes an explosion of violence in Ashuriyah, with Sunnis and Shi’as now clamoring for blood either from Americans or each other. Jack recounts how a roadside bomb hidden in a dead camel flipped their Stryker, giving him and Doc Cork concussions. A soldier named Ortiz also steps on an IED, dismembering and killing him. As a result of this escalation, Jack finds himself focusing more on “honor and survival” (108).

Chapter 18 begins with Snoop giving Jack Arabic lessons. Snoop asks Jack if he would be willing to write a letter of recommendation to help Snoop with immigration papers to America after the war. Dominguez then enters to remind them of Ortiz’s memorial service.

The service, which takes place three weeks after Alphabet’s death, underscores the narrator’s account of what has transpired. Haitham has disappeared again, and Jack is still...