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Nights in Pink Motel: An American Strategist's Pursuit of Peace in Iraq

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Robert Earle shares his personal experiences in Iraq in his latest book "Nights in the Pink Motel." He served as the `thinker' for Ambassador John Negroponte during the transition from the Coalition Provisional Authority to the first post-Saddam Iraqi Government in 2005. In his role as the `thinker', Earle worked with the interagency elements of America - the Department of State, Department of Defense, and other agencies present in Iraq. His perspective in the book is almost diary-like in the fascinating introspectives he provides in recalling his days in Iraq.

For those of us who spent time in the Middle East, Earle's writing brings back the memories of the oppressive heat, the perfunctory military indoctrination to camp life, and the stolen moments of fellowship as we relaxed with friends in the very few hours between duty days. Earle also shares his experiences as he was med-evaced from Iraq back to Germany discussing the fear of his own death and the profound sympathy for the soldier who won't make it home whole, or those who would not even return home alive.

The real value of this book begins with Earle's description of the political environment facing the rebuilding of Iraq. It goes far beyond the Shia/Sunni split. Earle expertly defines the factions within the Shia so that readers appreciate the roles of the leaders such as Muqtada al Sadr.

Earle helps the reader to appreciate the difficulties faced with interagency operations. The military is trained to do things like `neutralize' and `destroy' the enemy, where the Department of State and the subordinate USAID are more interested in restoring basic infrastructure and building democracies. Earle was responsible for writing the Joint Mission Statement for Ambassador Negroponte and General Casey, the leader of the Multi-National Forces Iraq. Earle recalls the viewpoints for each of these factions within the US government and how the two Joint Mission Statements came about.

In a unique twist from most authors, Earle refers to most characters in the book by nicknames such as the `true hero', `1776', or `strategy'. What I initially found quirky, actually helped follow the dramatis personae throughout the book. Most nicknames referred to personality traits; in the context of describing situations, such as the formulation of the Joint Mission Statement, the nicknames perfectly described the attitudes of some of the participants in these brainstorming sessions. Most characters are identified, but some such as `1776', nicknamed because of his head bandage, will forever remain anonymous out of deference for basic human dignity.

Overall, the book is a very interesting perspective from Negroponte's `thinker', giving a rare peak inside the executive decision making that helped shape America's strategy in Iraq in support of standing up the first democratically elected government in Iraq's history. The book content is balanced between the personal experiences in Iraq and the team's strategy development process. My only complaint is the lack of detail of what was actually in the Joint Mission Statement - you learn about the process they went through to develop it, and what the major discussion points, but you don't really know what the major focus areas are for the Joint Mission Statement.

Nights in the Pink Motel: An American Stranger's Pursuit of Peace in Iraq is the firsthand, personal testimony of Robert Earle, recruited as a strategist by the first U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Though Earle was evacuated from Iraq for medical reasons, he was subsequently requested to return for the specific purpose of writing a message to the president explaining that U.S. policy was not working and suggesting a viable alternative. Multinational Force-Iraq Commanding General George Casey also asked Robert Earle to provide an assessment of the evolution of Iraqi politics, and predict outcomes for the January 2005 election. Working in the offices within Saddam Hossein's former presidential palace in Baghdad's Green Zone, which Earle tongue-in-cheek dubbed the "Pink Motel", he confronted the very real and troublesome obstacles to a peace-building effort. An insider's view of the complex and difficult ordeal on Iraq's long road to stability, Nights in the Pink Motel is fascinating cover to cover, and highly recommended to any reader curious about the behind-the-scenes ever to make Iraq a safer place.

Hundreds of U.S. diplomats and officials have served in Iraq, and scores have written books about their experience. Many of those books attempt to amplify limited experience into policy treatises with results that, in hindsight, are unremarkable. To these, add Earle's account of his own time as a senior aid to John Negroponte, whose 2004-05 tenure as ambassador to Iraq following the departure of Coalition Provisional Authority director L. Paul Bremer is now largely forgotten.

Earle might have added insight. He worked in Iraq during the height of the insurgency, a time during which many other diplomat-authors had already left. Instead, Nights in the Pink Motel--the title itself a cutesy name for the Green Zone--is full of inane anecdotes and irrelevant details that reflect less the nature of Iraq and more the culture shock of a pampered diplomat inserted into a military environment who focuses on such details as signs proclaiming, "No long guns in the dining facility." He conveys conversations in almost cartoonish terms. Former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich "barks," and Maj.-Gen. Michael Streeter "moans." There is little insight into Negroponte's interactions with Gen. George Casey, the senior military officer in Iraq, nor how Negroponte and Earle decided which Iraqi politicians to meet and which to shun, nor how U.S. officials sought to maximize their own influence at the expense of U.S. adversaries.

Earle's narrative conveys little evidence of serious planning or policymaking. His meetings convey little more sophistication than descriptions of Negroponte constructing bullet point lists during staff meetings. Perhaps Earle wishes to suggest his predecessors could not understand the obvious, but instead he highlights the lack of insight into the nuance of Iraqi politics with which Negroponte, Earle, and his team arrived, treating Iraq as a blank slate and discarding the hard-earned lessons of past experience.

Ultimately, Nights in the Pink Motel fails completely. To contrast Earle's account with that of Peter Mansoor is to juxtapose an elementary school student's understanding of Iraqi politics and the insurgency with that of a university professor. In many ways, Iraq's occupation, the insurgency, and reconstruction are tales of woe. Many books might elucidate decision-making and embarrass U.S. policymakers. Nights in the Pink Motel will embarrass only its author.

Michael Rubin
Middle East Quarterly
Spring 2009

Robert Earle was a retired American diplomat, writing novels that -- to judge by the prose in "Nights in the Pink Motel" -- were unreadable when opportunity knocked. He could go to Iraq, a place he knew nothing about, as the "thinker" for John Negroponte, who was being sent as ambassador in 2004 to pick up the pieces from the Coalition Provisional Authority disaster.
According to this memoir, Earle many times wondered what he was doing in Iraq. Me, too.
First off, he was a poor choice to think about strategy, since he doesn't know the difference between strategy and tactics. Second, he didn't know anything about the area. Third, cooped up in the strategic -- or in this case, tactical -- hamlet called the Green Zone, he had no opportunity to find out.
It paid well.
All memoirs of the disaster in Iraq are worth reading for their instructive value. Few are as hard to read as "Nights in the Pink Motel." Once you get going, however, there is a certain fascination with a man capable of writing, apropos of watching a hospital patient taking a smoke break, "Smoking is almost job-like, a bit of imperative fire-tending, full of inchoate, ineffable meanings." Can a writer capable of a line that bad do even worse? Press on. Yes, he can!
Strategic thinking -- given George Bush's desire to cultivate democracy among Mideast Muslims -- would have begun with a question, are there any Muslims who might be willing to make the compromises necessary to create a functioning democracy? The answer, obviously, is, only the Kurds. The next step would not have required a hired "thinker." Support a free and independent Great Kurdistan for starters.
Strategy, however, was not on the table. Negroponte was expected only to devise a tactical retreat sufficient to stop the bleeding, real and metaphorical. As we know, he failed.
Earle gives no hints about what his boss may have thought himself, but Earle's contempt for Bush shines through every time the president is mentioned.
His feelings about Iraqis are obscure. He hardly ever talked to any.
Astoundingly, he manages to write a whole book about politics in the Middle East without considering Islam, other than as a help to label various factions who are treated politically, not religiously, which is, of course, the opposite of how they view themselves.
Occasionally a gem of insight drops on the floor. Out of the blue he mentions that the Axis of Weasel back in the White House and Department of Defense was deeply suspicious of the Shia. You would think this insight -- obviously correct -- would lead a professional thinker to think, what in the world were they up to, if they won't support the Kurds, slapped down
the Sunni and don't trust the Shia? What clients did they think would people their client-state?
The question is not asked. Not in "Nights in the Pink Hotel," anyway.
After some time, Earle makes contact with a lawyer, identified only as Kay, who wants the United States government to make a priority of establishing a complete rule of law in Iraq, instead of, as she complains, being interested only in prosecuting wrongdoers. Earle adopts Kay's program, which gives a direction to an otherwise aimless tale.
Another failure, of course.
So after a year, he goes home. The final few pages, in which Earle visits wounded GIs, are tender and moving. They are so different from the rest of the book, you wonder whether Earle wrote them.
Nobody in this book visits any wounded Iraqis.