I'm not sure if I was clear on re-reading my comment-- Prince of the Marshes is his second book and deals entirely with the Iraq war/reconstruction. The first book was a different one and also pretty interesting, but his whole background is so weird and nineteenth century British player-of-the-Great-Game that I think it's really relevant to what he later wrote. A big part of PotM deals with the cultural issues, definitely; he understands the Iraqis culturally but is stymied at every turn in his efforts to turn that understanding into action, while the Americans swan in and act like, well, Americans.