Sitting helplessly in the back of a bombed armored troop carrier as soldiers scrambled to tend the wounded, the diplomat had to ask himself: Was his meeting with Iraqi officials worth this?
It is a question that instructors at the Army's National Training Center at Fort Irwin, in the Mojave Desert, hope diplomats always ask themselves before requesting transportation from the military units that house and protect them in many parts of Iraq.
This time, a pyrotechnics crew was responsible for the stomach-churning boom. But soon enough, the explosions, the burns and shattered limbs could be all too real.
Until that moment, it had not occurred to Cris Dilworth that a civilian could put armed soldiers in harm's way.
"It was a strange thought," the bearded diplomat said the next morning over weak coffee and powdered eggs in the mess tent.
For career diplomats, Iraq is an unusual assignment. Other than Afghanistan, no mission requires the same degree of cooperation between diplomats and service members. For the first time, they are getting a chance to train together before meeting in a combat zone.
Dilworth, who processed immigrant visas in Egypt before volunteering for a political post in Baghdad, and three other diplomats headed to their first assignments in Iraq recently joined the Army's 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division for a week of intense role-playing at Fort Irwin. The diplomats slept on cots and worked out of a tent on a base surrounded by re-created Iraqi villages. Each day, they strapped on flak vests over their business jackets and clambered into armored carriers to meet with local leaders, played by Iraqi immigrants. They confronted insurgent attacks, corrupt officials and sectarian rivalries.
"You can forget at times that you are in California," said Wesley Robertson, a public diplomacy officer who is trading a post in Chennai, India, for Iraq's violent Diyala province.
All four diplomats are joining Provincial Reconstruction Teams, or PRTs. These civilian-led teams, which include some military officers and representatives of other government agencies, were conceived in 2005 to help Iraq's local and provincial governments provide services, promote stability and stimulate development.
