Let's Summit It Up

It's a big weekend for Afghanistan, though the main event is back in the U.S. at the Chicago NATO Summit (will Karzai and Obama share a deep dish at Gino's East?).  Being deployed can be quite isolating and it is easy to become focused on the sometimes very narrow mission or set of tasks one has to accomplish.  As you dig into the challenges of the district or province you are working in without regard for the violence and/or "good news" coming from other parts of the country.  I am fortunate to have been able to travel a bit during my time here to get a wider perspective.  I am also attempting to be able to rattle off all 34 provinces in AFG by the time I leave with the same ease I could name all 50 U.S. states.  But more than that, I keep an eye on the news in the U.S. and international news to try to build the link for what is happening at the strategic level down to what I'm doing at the tactical level (and yes team gov/dev/RoL/team non-lethal/team squishy practices tactics too!).

When not out KLEing it up, I have done my fair share of "staff" work (a noted improvement in my PPT skills!) and sat in a lot of meetings.  One of these meetings is the Stability Working Group (read: team squishy) where we try to sync all the non-lethal efforts in the battlespace.  At various points I have raised issues happening at the national/international level as potential talking points with our Afghan partners.  When the SPA (Strategic Partnership Agreement) was signed a couple weeks ago, we were able to obtain not only the full text English version, but a Pashtu translation as well.  I thought "perfect," this will be great to share during my next set of meetings.  Because I am convinced that the GIRoA officials I meet with -- while they will always ask for help with logistics and resources, they are also curious about life in the U.S. and are truly interested in the future between our two countries.  I have often been gently re-buffed when I make these suggestions -- I think more due to a lack of faith that I can "teach" PLs what the SPA means.  So I was thrilled that today during a meeting with my favorite DGOV, he told me that he had printed a copy of the SPA and also talked about the Chicago summit this weekend.  Sometimes when things seem hopeless, this is all it takes to bring a smile to my face.