Can't Give This War Away

I "Wordled" the CAN'T GIVE THIS WAR AWAY manuscript...

2012-05-31T00:51:11+04:30

I used Wordle.net to: "generate a “word clouds” from text....The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. " The 'cloud' discards common words, and I further edited out 'back' and 'like.' However, the frequency of 'like' makes me strongly want to line-edit and...

I've been saying this since 1991...

2012-05-29T21:00:19+04:30

But, hey, if I defended Chris Hayes like this post did, I guess I'm just another jerk that hates America. This is a good take on this fake-outrage event, as well - I'm sure borderline treasonous to some in the phony "I love America the bestest!" crowd. And finally, Bernard...

Book Review: THE LONG WALK by Brian Castner...and EOD in Bayji, Iraq

2012-05-29T20:26:16+04:30

On Amazon: THE LONG WALK by Brian Castner I was of two minds when I read this book - there were times when I didn't like it, when I was like "gad, another, 'I'm crazy' memoir from the war," but I was equally impressed with author Brian Castner's raw, and...

Memorial Day 2012 - Sgt. Kenneth Gibson, KIA August 10, 2008

2012-05-27T18:12:35+04:30

The following is an excerpt from "CAN'T GIVE THIS WAR AWAY: Here, Were Men." I met Sergeant Kenneth Gibson just once, face-to-face. I didn’t know at the time, but he’d also been the ‘vehicle commander’ the day the mud hut was destroyed, sitting in the Stryker all day. I often...

May 26, 1987: Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals - Larry Bird Steals the Ball

2012-05-26T17:51:00+04:30

Twenty-five years ago, I was 19 and a few days away from graduating from the Defense Information School at the now defunct and closed Fort Benjamin Harrison. While underage, Fort Ben's "19th Hole" golf club never seemed to card or care what was going on there - so I was...

Book Review: VISIT SUNNY CHERNOBYL by Andrew Blackwell

2012-05-23T19:48:46+04:30

Full Review on Amazon: VISIT SUNNY CHERNOBYL by Andrew Blackwell This book, which I pre-reviewed earlier (in combination with RABID by Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy) is now published and ready to go. It's a pretty interesting tour of some of the world's most polluted places. More importantly, it raises...

Carl Prine of 'Line of Departure' reviews CAN'T GIVE THIS WAR AWAY. It's a good one!

2012-05-21T22:51:55+04:30

Carl Prine of Military.com's Line of Departure blog reviewed CAN'T GIVE THIS WAR AWAY, and I'm happy and excited that it got a good note. I appreciated his first paragraph: I didn’t expect to like this book. It’s not because I disliked, or even knew, the author – Nathan S....

Press Conference! Returning my Army Service Ribbon in protest of...I dunno...some friggin thing.

2012-05-17T06:27:55+04:30

UPDATED BELOW: Turns out my "protest" actually earned me a medal...go figure. This is one of those issues that it's simply too easy to not mock and belittle, even though there's an attempt at some kind of honest personal protest. So these veterans (who by most accounts are true veterans)...

Book Review: Kristen Iversen's FULL BODY BURDEN: GROWING UP IN THE NUCLEAR SHADOW OF ROCKY FLATS

2012-05-13T19:21:12+04:30

Full review on Amazon: Kristen Iversen's FULL BODY BURDEN: GROWING UP IN THE NUCLEAR SHADOW OF ROCKY FLATS. As I note in my review above, the importance of a book like this might be less the story and more the information. Just like with Iraq and Afghanistan, "we the people"...

And Soldiers too...ESPN's Marty Smith: "How Do You Cope When It's Over? Athlete's Die Twice."

2012-05-11T23:04:43+04:30

ESPN writer Marty Smith covers NASCAR racing, and his recent column, "How do you cope when it's over" had no clear connection to soldiers or the military, but he and the athletes describe very similar emotions, and it's worth reading the impressions of millionaire athletes - and their struggles at...

Fenway Park's 100th Anniversary: John Michael Pocher (and now Carl Beane) - Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Welcome, to Friendly Fenway Park

2012-05-10T14:58:00+04:30

ORIGINALLY POSTED ON APRIL 3; UPDATED May 10, 2012, to include sad news about Carl Beane, who continued the tradition of the iconic "Welcome to Fenway" phrase. Long before my trips to Iraq as an embedded photojournalist, I worked at a ticket agency - a ticket broker, or legalized scalper...

Book Review: Ben Fountain's BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALFTIME WALK

2012-05-06T03:06:59+04:30

Full Review on Amazon: BILLY LYNN'S LONG HALFTIME WALK by Ben Fountain When I first heard about this book (and Karl Marlantes' blurb), I assumed it was written by a veteran - it isn't, and that's really amazing, because this is a pitch-perfect look into a soldier's experiences. As a...

Michael Kelly of The Atlantic, spotlighted by Byliner - but also by history's harsh glare

2012-05-04T04:01:26+04:30

Michael Kelly and I are both graduates of the University of New Hampshire, he in 1979, myself in 1995 and 2009. Currently, a scholarship at UNH bears his name. He was the first journalist killed during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, dying in a Humvee accident. Byliner, which collects and...

Michael Anthony, author of MASS CASUALTIES, interviews me...

2012-05-03T07:03:00+04:30

Michael Anthony, author of MASS CASUALTIES, and I exchanged a few question-answers recently. http://masscasualties.com/2012/05/cant-give-this-war-away-interview-with-war-correspondent-nathan-s-webster/ I start contradicting myself toward the end - but I guess that's the way an interview sometimes goes, especially with any sort of deeper rumination. I should know that, I suppose. Next time, I'll turn the...

Alex Berenson interview with Slate: Fact and Fiction in his John Wells spy series

2012-04-30T02:00:34+04:30

I don't read a lot of fiction, so I was unfamiliar with Alex Berenson, bestselling author of the John Wells spy series, until I read his Kindle e-book, "Lost in Kandahar," which was nonfiction reportage from Afghanista. He was an NY Times reporter before his fictional work, covering Iraq, Bernie...

Book Review: Peter Van Buren's "We Meant Well."

2012-04-29T21:07:29+04:30

Peter Van Buren, WE MEANT WELL: HOW I HELPED LOSE THE BATTLE FOR THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE. This is one of those uncommon books that I liked quite a bit while reading it, but knew the whole time that I wasn't accomplishing or learning anything useful....

Good personal story by Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: "Soldier's gift underscores cultural divide."

2012-04-26T05:27:58+04:30

This was a well-done story by top-notch Greg Jaffe of the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-soldiers-gift-to-afghan-workers-at-her-base-underscores-cultural-divide/2012/04/23/gIQAEKFEdT_story.html On Twitter, Jaffe called it his "attempt at an Ernie Pyle story," meaning, I think, the up-close look at a soldier's day-to-day life. That's what my stories tried to do as well. His story of Spec....

Matt Gallagher - "The List: Accounting for the Iraqi Allies America Left Behind"

2012-04-24T18:54:22+04:30

Matt Gallagher, author of the excellent Kaboom, has this column for the Daily Beast. It's an important read about a documentary film, "The List," that explores the Iraqi translators, interpreters, and other Iraq co-workers often abandoned after we left. I don't know what happened to most of the Iraqis I...

Book Review: Buzz Bissinger's "After Friday Night Lights: When the Games Ended..."

2012-04-24T07:25:51+04:30

Buzz Bissinger's "After Friday Night Lights: When the Games Ended, Real Life Began" I read 'Friday Night Lights' nearly 20 years ago, and while I haven't re-read it since, 'FNL's' harshest elements have still stuck with me. I remembered why as I read this short sequel, as author Buzz Bissinger...

David Wood - "Beyond the Battlefield." Why there IS a Pulitzer Prize.

2012-04-22T21:00:36+04:30

David Wood's series "Beyond the Battlefield: The War Goes On for the Severely Wounded" appeared first on the Huffington Post, and is now available as an e-book on Amazon. As I say in my review, the series is a triumph of long-form journalism, and is exactly the kind of in-depth,...