So what exactly am I doing here in the Diyala Province?
Stepping on "cultural landmines" apparently.
Pretty cool that I made it into Stars and Stripes. Better circumstances would have been nice but I'll take what I can get.
I was taken out of context. Nothing I said upset them, it was a mistranslated slide that got the Iraqi Security Force officers upset. A slide translated by a very bitter Chaldean I might point out. The meeting also did not abruptly end, it lasted another hour or so. Everyone chatted afterword and I meet most of the leaders quite often and none of them really took offense. They understand we suck at translation.
Overall it's a good read and highlights some of what my squadron is doing out here in Diyala.
But if civil war or ethnic cleansing breaks out, go ahead and blame me. I'm currently figuring out ways to offend everyone next meeting.
Landmine 2 signing off...
You're not the only one to do such a thing. One of my colleagues has yet to live down her frank statement, "we know for a fact that there are pedophiles registered as volunteers in our organization," when explaining why our enrollment/verification system was better than competitors. Fortunately in our case there were no reporters present, and most of the audience was already familiar with her ... shall we say, lack of oral discretion.
ReplyDelete