The Foreign Service Journal, September 2014

50 SEPTEMBER 2014 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL One of my colleagues compares service here with working on an oil rig: a couple of months on duty followed by a blissful two-week rest to restore the soul. transformed the Foreign Service, bringing thousands of officers to serve in places and conditions that were inconceivable in the previous decades. The sheer number of Foreign Service mem- bers experiencing this phenomenon points to a sea-change in our organization. An individual is bound to be affected by living and working on an isolated compound in the middle of a war zone, no matter how psychologically unscathed he or she appears to emerge at the tail end of the assignment. I am also beginning to perceive a paradigm shift in the Foreign Service toward a more military culture. This is manifested in our vocabulary, in our Facebook profile photos (how many of your colleagues have posted pictures of themselves wearing their personal protective equip- ment?) and in our overall approach to our diplomatic presence in conflict zones. Even if the State Department were to decide tomorrow to end our presence in these places, we still have an entire generation of Foreign Service officers who have served in an unaccompa- nied post in a war zone, some multiple times. I can’t help but be concerned about the overall impact of this phenomenon on the Foreign Service as a whole. I am sure that, in the wake of ending two wars, the U.S. military will take a long, hard look at its experi- ences and adjust accordingly. I trust that the Foreign Service will do the same. Despite the challenges, I am walking away frommy assign- ment to Afghanistan with an overall positive view, derived from a sense of pride in what my colleagues and I contributed to further U.S. foreign policy goals here. This has been a momentous year in U.S.-Afghan relations, with national elections and the first democratic transition of power in Afghanistan’s history, the negotiations over a Bilateral Security Agreement and the transi- tion from a U.S. combat role to a more traditional diplomatic presence dominating our activities. As President Barack Obama said in his May 27 announce- ment on our future troop presence: “We have now been in Afghanistan longer than many Americans expected. But make no mistake—thanks to the skill and sacrifice of our troops, dip- lomats and intelligence professionals, we have struck significant blows against al-Qaida’s leadership, we have eliminated Osama bin Laden and we have prevented Afghanistan from being used to launch attacks against our homeland. We have also supported the Afghan people as they continue the hard work of building a democracy. We’ve extended more opportunities to their people, including women and girls. And we’ve helped train and equip their own security forces.” Anyone who has served in Afghani- stan should be proud of their service and contributions to these worthy goals. n The author at the Citadel in Herat. The citadel dates back to 330 B.C., when Alexander the Great and his army arrived in what is now Afghanistan. Many empires have used it as a headquarters over the past 2,000 years. Courtesy William Bent