How to use this Page

“I refuse to call this a war. World War II was a war. This is a fight. And a dirty one at that. The way I see it, our enemy simply wants to kill as many Americans as possible, thereby convincing the CNN-watching public that the price is just too great … It’s cheap and has a good chance of working. I pray it doesn’t.”

That’s an excerpt from Jason Christopher Hartley's Iraq War memoir, Just Another Soldier.

No matter what you think about this conflict, you need to understand it. Too many Americans are dying out there, and writers cannot ignore this story.

Today, Hartley's reading list can help you think and write about this war, sharing his literary influences in the process.

Welcome my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions. In the spirit of Jack Nicholson's mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
You wrote a memoir about your experiences as a soldier. How long did it take you to turn that overwhelming experience into a memoir? Who are your influences? In your opinion, what are the best books for people to read to understand the conflict in Iraq better?

Jason Christopher Hartley:
Just Another Soldier is composed of about 50% of stuff I wrote in Iraq and 50% of stuff I wrote when I got back. Continue reading...

"Alpha team takes the first room, then Bravo team—the team I led—takes the second. Once the first room is clear, my team enters the building and lines up against the wall next to the door of the room we are about to enter. This is called a ‘stack.’ Once the door is kicked in, the stack flows into the room.”

Do you know what that is? That’s the simple mechanics of what patrol troopers do in Iraq every day—entering hundreds of rooms, never knowing what lies on the other side. I didn’t know how a stack worked—or how unbelievably dangerous it is to go through that broken door—until I spent an afternoon with Jason Christopher Hartley.

He’s a Iraq veteran, a memoirist and blogger, and he’s currently working on a brand new performance art piece called Surrender. The play will dress the audience up in battle fatigues and run them through real training exercises—letting civilians feel what a combat situation is really like. 

Today, Hartley gives us a sneak peak of what Surrender will look like when it premieres in July--part of my deceptively simple feature, Five Easy Questions.

In the spirit of Jack Nicholson’s mad piano player, I run a weekly set of quality conversations with writing pioneers—delivering some practical, unexpected advice about web writing.

Jason Boog:
The Surrender workshop was one of the most overwhelming theater experiences I've ever had. Could you describe your project for my readers? How did your workshop audiences respond to the project? What can we expect in July? 

Jason Christopher Hartley:

Last week I wrote about the death of Andrew Olmsted, a military blogger who always caught me off guard with his ideas and images about the Iraq War. Meet Olmsted in his final, inspiring post.

Writers need to read and think about this war, and the writings of bloggers like Olmsted should be required reading.

Today, you should read this tribute to Sergeant Scott Lange Kirkpatrick written by my friend, Ian Daly. It's an essay about a slam poet, writer, and soldier who died in Iraq last year. In addition, Kirkpatrick's father blogged about the story here.  

According to the story (which includes this photo of Kirkpatrick), this young writer joined the military after telling his wife, “Here I am writing and analyzing and bitching about things, and I’m not doing anything.”

Now I'm not telling everyone to enlist, but all writers need to be grappling with this conflict, not pretending like the war isn't happening. It is a real issue affecting hundreds of thousands of Americans. Don't let this complicated war stay in the margins of your writing.

Earlier this week I wrote about the death of Andrew Olmsted, a military blogger who I always enjoyed reading. Writers like him do more to help us understand the Iraq War than a whole Internet full of pundits.

Over at Obsidian Wings, they've been tracking the massive outpouring of Internet support for Olmsted's family (also posting that picture of Olmsted and his unit).

You can read the 500 tribute posts here; and Olmsted's final post is a moving essay about the power of Internet community and ideals. This line has haunted me all week:

"Granted, this site will eventually vanish, being ephemeral in a very real sense of the word, but at least for a time it can serve as a tiny record of my contributions to the world. But on a larger scale, for those who knew me well enough to be saddened by my death, especially for those who haven't known anyone else lost to this war, perhaps my death can serve as a small reminder of the costs of war."

If you feel like you want to do more, Olmsted's family is asking that you to send donations to Capt. Thomas Casey Children's fund, a pool of donations to help the family of one of Olmsted's fallen soldiers. More information here.

Capt. Thomas Casey Children’s
P.O. Box 1306
Chester, CA 96020