The narrator, who is a man named Nathan, says that success is hard to measure in Iraq because there are no clear metrics. As a Foreign Services Officer with little experience, when he arrives at Camp Taji, he isn’t sure that he belongs. He had initially opposed the war but knows that the experience will help his career. He is worried that he will be seen as “a fraud and a war tourist” (78). A man named Bob picks him up when he arrives and says that he is in Iraq simply because he has never done anything like it before. He will also get $250,000 for his work. He tells Nathan that another colleague, Cindy, is a “true believer” (78), working on behalf of democracy and tolerance.

When Nathan meets Cindy, she has just learned how to use Google. She tells him that she is working on an agricultural initiative. She also says they are missing a team member named Steve, who hurt his ankle on the first day while jumping out of a helicopter, even though he hadn’t been in danger. Nathan starts trying to brainstorm with Bob about ideas for a water treatment center, but Bob interrupts him: “‘If you want to succeed, don’t do big ambitious things.