A S H Smyth › On <i>Uncertain Ground</i>

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Tag Archives: Iraq

On Uncertain Ground

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

In which I, ASH Smyth, High Anglican atheist, descendant of Huguenots, dissenters, Presbyterians, Church of Ireland types, and maybe even Quakers, make my Catholic press debut, on Phil Klay’s Uncertain Ground: Citizenship in an Age of Endless, Invisible War. — For The Catholic Herald

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged Afghanistan, America, Americans, Barack Obama, books, Catholicism, citizenship, Jesuits, John McCain, Journalism, Libya, movies, Navy Seals, Niger, non-fiction, Pakistan, Penguin, Phil Klay, politics, Somalia, St Ignatius, Syria, The Catholic Herald, Ukraine, USMC, veterans, war, writers, Yemen | Comments (0)

A Hitch in time

Sunday, May 15, 2022

On the late, great Christopher Hitchens, and the role the Falklands may have played in his political development. — For The Critic

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged 9/11, Admiral Graf von Spee, Adolf Hitler, Afghanistan, Africa, Alexander Haig, Argentina, Barack Obama, Battle Day, Borges, Britain, Caspar Weinberger, Christopher Hitchens, coffee, Commander Eric Hitchens, conservatives, Cossacks, Covid, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, Cyprus, Denis MacShane, Falklands Radio, football, Goose Green, Hector Timerman, Holland, Human Rights Watch, Iran, Israel, Jacobo Timerman, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Jews, Jorge Videla, Journalism, La Opinion, Lebanon, Lincoln's Inn, Lt Nick Taylor, Margaret Thatcher, Nazis, New York, Nicholas Henderson, Palestine, Robert Cox, Ronald Reagan, Salman Rushdie, terrorism, The Critic, The Falklands War, the Inquisition, the Junta, the left wing, the Mediterranean, The Nation, The New Statesman, the Pacific, the Royal Navy, The Spectator, the UN, the Union Jack, Ukraine, Washington DC, WWI, WWII | Comments (0)

The Gentleman’s Marathon

Monday, October 5, 2020

On my attempt to run 26.2 miles, in Pheidippides’ footsteps. — For The Critic

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Afghanistan, army, artillery, Athens, Bosnia, Brett Raymond, champagne, Chariots of Fire, Charlton, Classics, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, death, gentlemen, Google, Greece, Haruki Murakami, health, hills, Homer, Honourable Artillery Company, Joseph James Prosser, kilometers, London marathon, Lucian, Marathon, Merrell, miles, Olympics, Panathinaiko Stadium, Persians, Phaleron War Cemetery, Pheidippides, running, Silverstone, the Aegean, The Critic, war | Comments (0)

Veterans of modern wars

Tuesday, October 10, 2017

In a mid-September interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Baron Richards of Herstmonceux (GCB, CBE, DSO, DL – better known as General David Richards, former Chief of the Defence Staff) made a comment to the effect that “a part-time soldier cannot be as effective as someone who’s devoted his life to it and puts on a […]

Filed in correspondence, Journalism | Also tagged Afghanistan, army, Baron Richards of Herstmonceux, Brigadier James Roddis, Bruce Dickinson, children, David Dickinson, death, Ed Drummond-Baxter, employment, food, Honourable Artillery Company, Iron Maiden, Jack Sadler, Ted Heath, The Oldie, war | Comments (0)

NEWS AT A GLANCE

Monday, March 13, 2017

. Fifty-one per cent of the foreigners in England live in London. — The Nelson Evening Mail, July 28 1906 . International rugby union referee Nigel Owens wears Superman pants while he’s officiating. The Iraqi army is about to defeat Islamic State. There’s no playbook for how to be a guy. In 1947 a United States […]

Filed in Journalism, NEWS AT A GLANCE | Also tagged Alexander Hamilton, America, antiques, Authors CC, BBC, books, Congress, cooking, cricket, Dickens, England, flora, Hong Kong, horse-racing, immigration, insects, Islam, Journalism, law, London, men, milk, Nazism, Nelson Evening Mail, Nigel Owens, odds, Portland, rugby, Stalin, Superman, underwear, Victoria Derbyshire, Wagner | Comments (0)

Heroes in error

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Review of War Porn. — For The Spectator

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged Americans, death, novels, pornography, Roy Scranton, Spectator, war | Comments (0)

Flak Jacket to Dust Jacket

Thursday, November 6, 2014

Men at War: What Fiction Tells Us About Conflict, from The Iliad to Catch-22 By Christopher Coker (Hurst 325pp £25) My Life as a Foreign Country By Brian Turner (Jonathan Cape 240pp £16.99) Seamus Heaney once remarked upon the heroes of antiquity that it is ‘not so much their procedures on the page which are […]

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged America, Brian Turner, Christopher Coker, film, Homer, Literary Review, literature, London School of Economics, memoir, Poetry, Russell Crowe, Seamus Heaney, Vietnam, war | Comments (0)

Feats of Klay

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Redeployment By Phil Klay (Canongate, 291pp, £15) ‘Nobody wants to do a year in Iraq’, mutters one of the narrators in Phil Klay’s Redeployment, ‘and come back with nothing but stories about the soft-serve ice-cream machine at the embassy cafeteria.’ No kidding. And Klay (rhymes with ‘guy’) will not have been the first soldier, American […]

Filed in Journalism, review | Also tagged fiction, Jesuits, Literary Review, literature, MFA, Phil Klay, sex, short stories, US Marines, war | Comments (2)