Fighting Fallujah After 20 Years – Mother Jones

U.S. Marines board a truck after multiple ambushes during intense fighting south of Fallujah, April 15, 2004.Lynsey Addario/Getty Images

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Twenty years have passed since the Battle of Fallujah. The bloodiest battle in the global war against terrorismDuring the Iraq War, it was a disaster that we now know was based on lies.

But after 9/11, the battlefield was filled with troops who believed they were serving their country and defending it against terrorism.

“Going to Fallujah was the scariest experience of our lives,” said Mike Ergo, team leader with U.S. Marine Corps Alpha Company 1st Battalion. “And for me, it was the most alive I’ve ever felt.”

We are here with an exciting new episode this week. UncoverThe team partners with a nonprofit newsroom War Horse Joining Ergo’s unit as they regroup and ponder what they did and what was done to them. Together, they remember the fallen 20-year-old corporal of their unit, Bradley Faircloth, and reveal the mental and emotional battles they continue to face today.

Listen here:

Don’t miss it for more”My Team’s Struggle to Survive and Recover from the Bloodiest Battle of the Iraq War“, Thomas J. Brennan’s first-hand account of the Battle of Fallujah and its lasting moral scar and trauma, published by War Horse And Mother JonesIn November 2024.