No True Glory

"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.