NATO and Pasta

So today was pretty awesome. Yesterday after I got out of class (an hour late!), I received an email from the social sciences department regarding a lecture from the Commander of Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum, General Hans-Lothar Domröse. That day in class, my professor made a vague comment of how a NATO officer was coming Tartu the next day, so imagine my surprise when I realized how high ranking this man is. You can google him so see his full career, but essentially the Allied Joint Force Brunssum is one out of two operational level commands in the NATO command structure. The lecture was scheduled for two in the afternoon and, because my class didn’t start until four fifteen, I could go.

I got to the room (it’s a small, hundred person auditorium where one of my classes is held) about a half hour early. There were already a few military people standing outside the door (I immeditaly recognized the one man’s uniform as American, but I could tell he wasn’t Air Force like my dad) and after about twenty minutes I went inside. The other young woman sitting next to me and I spoke for a few minutes and we commented how we seemed to be two of the few students in the room. Once the room was full, there were maybe five students and the rest were military. There was the one American Army man I had seen before and I think an American Navy man (he was in dress blues that weren’t Marines or Air Force, so this is my best guess), Estonian uniforms I’ve seen around Tart, and then so many military uniforms I did not recognize. This may sound really weird, but I loved the smell that was in the room. It smelled like military uniforms, it smelled like my dad. I felt really calm around that smell.

Then the Commander came in and everyone clapped. I immediately liked him. He was confident but not arrogant, articulate and easy to understand despite his German accent. While he was introducing himself, I counted the number of medals he had on his uniform jacket because his ribbon bar was pretty large. If I counted correctly, he had twenty. He started off his lecture by reminding everyone he could not speak for NATO and some things he was going to say were his own opinions. He then proceeded to give a very brief overview of NATO (the structure, the voting requirements), and then spoke of NATO’s role in Afghanistan. He spoke of how NATO should be out of Afghanistan soon and Afghanistan should be having their elections soon. He was very proud of the education and technology NATO had brought to Afghanistan.

Then he got to the topic that was on most people’s minds, Crimea. He was very honest and admitted NATO may have been naive when it came Russia, especially after what happened to Georgia not so long ago. He expressed gratitude towards the United States because we have offered additional resources than required of us in regards to being part of NATO. He was a big fan of United States and said the United States was a major ally whether most of Europe appreciated that or not. Although he didn’t really say anything directly about Russia invading Estonia, he did at some point mention that NATO would be there to defend Estonia whenever Estonia needed them. He mentioned that while NATO does go in and help nations that need their help, NATO can only do this when they are able. He mentioned this is why NATO has not been able to help in Syria because, as horrific as the events in Syria are, the possible lives lost if NATO intervened could be even higher. If NATO intervened, then Russia and Iran would certainly retaliate. Basically, NATO has limits and can only act within those limits.

After he finished, he took some questions. I swear, some people just want to ask questions so they can talk. Out of the five questions, probably two were decent questions, and these are coming from adults. The other ones had been explained in the lecture or could be answered by a simple google search.

I feel really lucky I was able to attend this lecture. I learned a lot about NATO and it was such a unique experience.

After the lecture and then class, I went to dinner with Ariail and Laura. Ariail had been to this Italian place a few days before and had really liked it, so we went there to eat and discuss our trip to Helsinki. We figured out our plans pretty quickly and had a wonderful dinner. Ariail and Laura had pizza and salad and I had an amazing seafood pasta.

I also finally got my American debit card in the mail! Buy all the things! I booked my flight for New Jersey. I leave on June 19th around noon and get to New Jersey around seven at night. I’m looking forward to spending a few days with Lia before I head back to California on the 22nd.