Despite the title, the book mainly covers the second battle of Fallujah in Nov 2004.
There is a chapter on the April 2004 battle that was launched by the US following the death and public display of the Blackwater contractors. The brief fight is covered and some mention is made of the failure of the Fallujah Brigade that was installed in Fallujah to "keep the peace."
The outcome of the struggles in Iraq are not clear some seven years later.
As for the focus on the fight in Fallujah in November 2004, the author, Richard Lowry, describes the composition of the US and allied forces which is revealing of how the US forces fight nowadays. Divisions, brigades, and regiments are mere administrative organizations. Combat Teams, in the form of bridgade and regimental teams, direct and organize the fight. Marine battalions, Army infantry and mechanized battalions, special forces units, allied units are mixed to form effective and to the degree the planners intend, independent and self-sustaining fighting organizations. It is quite difficult to keep things straight, who was fighting with which combat team, while reading the book but the author's consistent use of designations and the detailed order of battle in the appendix help the reader. Air power and artillery are moments away from any fight where the heavy weapons or mortars are not enough. There is also the Marines' and Army's nearly indestructible M1 Abrams tank to ride to the rescue or add an instant breakthrough punch.
Still, with all the luxurious assets of the US Armed Forces, the poor bloody infantry still has to line up outside the door of homes and compounds and dash in not knowing whether to expect frightened civilians, a barking dog, an empty house, or an AK-47 wielding enemy. The skirmish combat descriptions in the book make that painfully clear. Every building needed to be searched for insurgents and weapons caches. Every building was potential IED or firefight.
As described in the book, the enemy encountered in Fallujah in 2004 ran the gamut of skill and determination. There were just the random, blind firing AK-47 insurgents, but there were also experienced, trained, well-equipped, and organized enemy hailing from Chechnya, Syria, Afghanistan and other battlefields. The Marines and soldiers noticed the difference when up against this better enemy.
The book is a fairly linear reporting of the Marines-directed action. Lowry moves back and forth across the US front in day-long or shorter increments and that helps the reader keep where he is on the battlefield in focus. In Fallujah, two Marine Brigade Combat Teams formed the knife edge of the assault. And within the BCTs, Marine battalions backed by Army armor provided the offensive push. Given the high level of combat integration in the US Armed Forces, it doesn't much matter if a unit is Army, Marines, Air Forces, or Special Forces. They all are capable of being tied together in a tight, well-functioning package.
I couldn't help making comparisons between US combined and joint operations today and the similar methods used by the WWII-era armies. All the major armies used combined arms in WWII to varying degrees but no one accomplished the degree or ease of tactical integration the Wehrmacht could regularly achieve. I would say the modern US Armed Forces has achieved and even surpassed that standard.
