After the september 11th attacks, and initially he was involved with u. S. Efforts at the u. N. Security council to freeze and block assets linked to alqaeda. But after the invasion of ric in 2003 of iraq in 2003, he ended up in baghdad among the First American diplomats sent to the iraqi capital. And then he went on to spend seven years in either iraq or afghanistan advising u. S. Forces and working with local authorities and others. Kaels service, for which he received the secretary of states medal for heroism, was uncommon not only for the amount of time he was posted in iraq or afghanistan, but also for the range of his contacts and the depth of his involvement with american troops and local civilians. His new book, the mirror test, recounts his personal journey, and it also provides a closeup, gritty, emotional portrait of the, of the wars that america has been engaged in now for well over a decade. Kaels very critical of americas failures in both conflicts and makes a point of hi