He'd won the book in an Arbor Day poster contest for schoolkids that had coincided with a citywide tree-planting program administered by the Department of Parks and Public Property.

NPR: Roth Rewrites History with a 'Plot Against America'

But when Robert Gates took over from Rumsfeld during the depths of American despair in Iraq, he soon began to doubt the relevance of the program to a world in which elusive adversaries were planting improvised explosives along every transportation artery in war zones.

FORBES: How The Army Missed Its Chance To Modernize