The 4 contractors were killed on 3/31. Fox Company, 2/1 Marines, led by Capt. Kyle Stoddard went into Al-Jawlan at midnight 4/4. They were the first company to lose a Marine. They were in continuous contact with the enemy until 5/1. 3 days short of a month, pardon me. You can contact 1stLt Eric M. Knapp at: KnappEM@1mardivdm.usmc.mil if you don't believe me and think you should waste his time and confirm my suspicions that you're good at tossing crap but not good at catching it.
“Continuous contact” is what occurs with the restrictive rules of engagement that they were under (for all but the first eight days).
I don’t doubt that the Fallujahn attack started out misguided and that some units were initially in the desperate conditions that you mentioned, although I suspect any chicken chasing was more a result of Marines acting out from their restrictions rather than starving. (All that's irrelevent to the single point that I'm making.) The idea that they were in such desperate conditions from their own doing for a month is ridiculous. After 8 days, they were not allowed to fight the way they were prepared.
The significance of that is profound. It’s the clearest example to date of forcing restrictions on people, who should be setting those restrictions, that “coincidentally” favor the short term goals of politicians here and in Iraq rather than the long term victory that Marines suffered and died for. They didn’t die for this. This is verging on betrayal.
You want to call driving that point home to people unwilling to recognize it “tossing crap”? Brilliant…