America, October 9, 2005
Just Another Soldier
Jason Christopher Hartley goes to Iraq
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Around a year ago, Time magazine did a profile on influential bloggers, and named a few websites that were up and coming. One of the pick stood out not so much for its topic (Iraq) or its angle (soldier's viewpoint) but for the cheeky writer, Jason Hartley.
Growing up Mormon, the poor boy went though a bit before he joined the Army National Guard and straightened his life out. The he was shipped off to Iraq and his decent writing skills + the web + the insanity of that Mess-o'patamia = one damn good website on the war from the trenches. Oh, but the Army was none too happy, as Jason wasn't writing the company line, he wrote what he saw. Fast forward a year and he was demoted and disgraced, right into a sweet book deal with HarperCollins. Now he's mugging it with folks on CNN and NPR, the lucky punk. But that's his due for he's a damn good writer. Those years as a tortured Mormon, the time in Iraq, it all went into molding a writer that can make me laugh and cry, in the same paragraph. I don't say this often, but I'll say it now. Buy this book. Just Another Soldier: A Year on the Ground in Iraq. |
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Nice link there - I'm enjoying it very much. He has a nice down-to-earth writing style and an ability to point out the ironic without using a hammer to do so.