international encounters

Today at work was very interesting. I’m a controller for another wargame this week, which has mostly involved sitting in the room and helping them run our idiosyncratic software for the course of the game… As a mere captain, surrounded by Lieutenant Colonels and Colonels, I can mostly fade into the background, which suits me perfectly. It did occur to me at one point that I was the only female in the room… but then, in the military that’s not too unusual anyhow.

But what did strike me today was something that I guess you could only encounter in a setting like this. I got to listen in to a fascinating conversation that an Israeli Air Force Lieutenant Colonel was having with two local colonels, all about the future for the state of Israel, the fallout of the summer 2006 war, and likely directions that Israel and Palestine may take in the future. Intriguing stuff! I was utterly fascinated. I’ve done some reading of Israeli blogs, so I’ve gotten some of those perspectives before, but it was definitely interesting to hear it from someone in person.

But not only that–today, also, I got to have a conversation (this is one that I was actually participating in) with a Colonel from El Salvador about life in Iraq, and our respective experiences there. What strange connections one can make in the military! He apparently left about a month before I arrived there last time. Anyway, I was just struck by what a cool thing it was that I could have two such intriguing experiences in the same day.

I’m looking forward to working in a Coalition environment again, where it’s normal to meet up with other military members from other countries. It’s fun because (being in the military) we generally share a certain conservatism, hawkishness, and general respect for authority… though of course all of that is relative to the cultures from which we’ve derived. (For instance, I believe that even the most hawkish of Scandinavians would still register left of center on a U.S. scale…)