"This is the face of war as only those who have fought it can describe
it."-Senator John McCain
Fallujah: Iraq's most dangerous city unexpectedly emerged as the major
battleground of the Iraqi insurgency. For twenty months, one American
battalion after another tried to quell the violence, culminating in a
bloody, full-scale assault. Victory came at a terrible price: 151
Americans and thousands of Iraqis were left dead.
The epic battle for Fallujah revealed the startling connections between
policy and combat that are a part of the new reality of war.
The Marines had planned to slip into Fallujah "as soft as fog." But
after four American contractors were brutally murdered, President Bush
ordered an attack on the city-against the advice of the Marines. The
assault sparked a political firestorm, and the Marines were forced to
withdraw amid controversy and confusion-only to be ordered a second time
to take a city that had become an inferno of hate and the lair of the
archterrorist al-Zarqawi.
Based on months spent with the battalions in Fallujah and hundreds of
interviews at every level-senior policymakers, negotiators, generals,
and soldiers and Marines on the front lines-No True Glory is a
testament to the bravery of the American soldier and a cautionary tale
about the complex-and often costly-interconnected roles of policy,
politics, and battle in the twenty-first century.
