Surfin the ticks....
This isn't so much a story of a "remarkable journey". In fact, I don't even consider it to be a tale of a puppet-sans-master. I see it as a story of pure cronyism and an affirmation of the fact that being a loyal hatchet-man can still take you places.
Since Bush's speech to the VFW comparing pulling out of Iraq to pulling out of Viet Nam might confuse anybody who's seen Rambo a few times too many, here and here are articles refuting that stance...
I just found this blog here by some dude (heh, with that title for his blog, how could I call him anything else) in Iraq. I will have to dig through it a bit. He writes quite well.