They didn't give him much time to think it over. But then, at the moment, it didn't seem as though there was much to think about.

Joseph Diaz had been out of work for three months. His mortgage was due. And the corporate recruiter was offering him almost a quarter of a million dollars to commit to up to nine months in Iraq, studying local culture to help military leaders accomplish their mission.

Diaz has been off the beaten path before. The social scientist has interviewed serial killers, witnessed an execution in Florida, studied down-and-out plasma donors on the Las Vegas Strip and lived with an Amish sect in rural Minnesota.

"But I would never have considered something like this," said the 38-year-old father of four, who was contacted by a recruiter for the Army's Human Terrain System earlier this month and was on a plane to Fort Riley, Kan., a week and a half later.

He'll spend four months training in Kansas before deploying to Iraq to conduct field research for the controversial program.

The American Anthropological Association has encouraged its members not to participate, saying the program is fraught with ethical concerns and raises questions "about relationships between anthropology, on the one hand, and military and state intelligence operations, on the other."

Three Human Terrain System members have been killed, including a woman who was doused with oil and set on fire.

Diaz weighed those factors against the potential to build cultural bridges between Iraqi civilians and American military forces -- and the need to help put food on his family's table.

"Hunger is the best seasoning," said Diaz, channeling Socrates. "If you go for a couple of days without water you'll drink from a mud puddle. I went without a job for three months, and I started looking at people who were working at fast food restaurants and thinking to myself, 'Well, look, they've got a job, why can't you find one?'"

Still, the decision has come with moral misgivings. Diaz considers himself an anti-war academic -- and those convictions have not been lost on his oldest son, Quinn.

"I was disappointed," said the 14-year-old high school freshman, named for the peace-making protagonist of the Bob Dylan song "The Mighty Quinn." The shaggy-haired teen plays guitar in a dads-and-sons basement band in which the elder Diaz is a vocalist -- and wishes his father would stick around for their weekly jam sessions.

"I stand very firmly against anything that is military related," the teenager said. "I hate everything about it. Now my dad is going to go to work for the Army? All I could think was that this is something he should be against."

The elder Diaz said he understands his son's qualms. He shares them.

"If I thought this was going to be an Army job, I wouldn't do it because that's not who I am," he said. "No one in the world has ever been in a better place because someone else was killed."

But beyond the allure of the paycheck, there is another appeal. Military leaders have suggested the program has helped reduce civilian casualties in Iraq.

Its supporters include Gen. David Petraeus, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and many on-the-ground commanders, who have praised the information provided by embedded experts in anthropology, psychology, history and criminology.

"I don't know the difference between a captain and a corporal," Diaz said. "But what if I could be instrumental in some way? What if what I do can help them?"

Filmmaker James Der Derian, whose documentary "Human Terrain" explores the relationship between social scientists and their military patrons, said others have found it possible to walk the narrow moral path between conducting research and providing intelligence.

"I would say that it will probably be difficult but not impossible to maintain an anti-war viewpoint," Der Derian said. "But ultimately, you are working for the man. You're working for the military. It will be interesting to know how he reconciles that when he goes out with soldiers into the field."

Diaz said he didn't know what he would find in Kansas, let alone Iraq. But he knows what he wants.

"I'm pretty sure I can save the world," he said, with less irony than might be expected of a social scientist. "When you feel like that -- when it seems like you can make stuff better -- that's the rush, man. That's such a rush."

mlaplante@sltrib.com

http://blogs.sltrib.com/military