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. The Marines had planned to slip into Fallujah βas 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. Victory came at a terrible price. 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.

Maps on lining papers. Includes maps of: Fallujah - Operation Vigilant Resolve (Cancelled April 2004 Offensive); Fallujah - Operation Phantom Fury (November 2004 Offensive).

Prologue - Lynching at the Brooklyn Bridge -- Pt I Counterinsurgency, April 2003-March 2004 - What kind of people loot dirt? - A broken chain of command - You work with Americans, you die. - A backwater problem - Valentine's Day Massacre -- Pt II Siege, March to May 2004 - They can't do that to Americans - Mutiny - The tipping point - Faint echoes of Tet - Farmers or shooters - Avoiding the perfect storm - Many die, they are gone - Easter with the dark side - You wanna shoot at me? This ain't no picnic! - Fallujah: a symptom of success - Two-faced sheikhs and imams - Lalfallujah - Strategic confusion - Jolan graveyard - Deal with the devil -- Pt III Reversal, May to October 2004 - Bomb factory - Keep the noise down - All this for nothing? -- Pt IV Attack, November to December 2004 - Watchdogs - Merry-go-round at the Jolan - Phase line henry - House from hell - Five corporals -- Epilogue: by inches, not yards, January to May 2005. Conclusion: No true glory. Where are they now? -- Order of Battle for Operation Phantom Fury.