I work with many other contractors who, like me, are on Authorized Absence (or discharged) from either Special Forces, Marine Recon, SEAL Teams, and so forth.
Old ways die hard among thugs. And pure thuggery is what has ruled Iraq for more than ten years before Saddam Hussein under Al-Bakir. There are still a few thugs standing in the wings trying to vie for power because that’s all they know. It doesn’t matter what variation on Islam they are spouting they are nothing more than mob bosses, and the Iraqi people, in general, are tired of it. Add some foreign terrorists to the mix and a liberal media in an election year and these thugs think they are going to win. I pray American voters see that we must finish this one the right way. If we walk away now, we will be responsible for a lot more than the two million Cambodians and every last Montainyard that was murdered the year after we abandoned Indochina. Here is the reality I see everyday.
The Iraqi people as a whole love us. You read it right love us. Terrorists may hate us and radicals in different ethnic groups within Iraq may hate each other. But in general, the common Iraqi people Shias, Sunis, Kurds, Chaldeans, Turkomen all have one thing in common: for one instant in time, they have hope for their future and the future of their children, and that hope is centered around one group of foreigners you guessed it Americans, the good old USA.
And there are dozens of coalition forces who help us. Young military people from most of the free countries in the world are here and willing to lay down their lives because America has led the way in spreading the good news of freedom and democracy to the oldest land on Earth.
We are all helping to train Iraqis to protect themselves with sound moral and ethical procedures. We know that teaching adults is important, but educating children is the key. So there is a lot of money going to rebuilding schools in Iraq and getting rural children to attend for the first time in history.
Mike viewed the images of friends mutilated and hanging from a bridge in Fallujah. The scene was horrific. What should be done?
He related three examples of how Americans dealt with indigenous people and their dead and prisoners we take. The missions took place in the two weeks following the Fallujah atrocities, just outside the gates of his Forward Operating Base.
Whether thugs attempting to steal freedom away, terrorists enacting barbaric behavior or the examples that Mike shares over the next few days, the truth of where these acts come from remains.
The acts result from the state of the heart. The inner man must be examined. Our thoughts and speech, as well as every act is an overflowing from the heart.
“For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries.” (Mark 7:21)
September 30
MISSION #1 PROTECTION/MEDEVAC
A taxi from Baghdad approached our front gate. Unknown to the gate guards, he was carrying one of our translators. He was ordered to slow down. When he didn’t comply he was forcefully ordered to stop and get out of his vehicle. In panic he floored his accelerator pedal thinking it was the brake causing his vehicle to lurch forward toward the gate. Appropriately, the gate guards fired eight 5.56 caliber rounds into the taxi.
The vehicle veered off into a field and came to a stop. Miraculously, no one inside was seriously injured by the gunfire. After the vehicle and both Iraqis were searched it was determined that the driver made a near fatal mistake but it was not deliberate.
If the guards were bloodthirsty, they could have continued to fire their weapons until they were sure that both Iraqis were dead. But they are professionals and they followed their current ROEs (Rules of Engagement) until the car was not a threat and then safely reassessed the situation.
But that’s not the end of the story. After tending to some minor wounds of our translator, I noticed the elderly Taxi cab driver was holding his chest with a clenched fist. I gave our translator a series of questions to ask and found the man was experiencing severe pressure on the left side of his chest radiating to his left shoulder and arm. He had an irregular pulse. After putting him on our EKG monitor I found him in a potentially life-threatening heart rhythm and determined he was in the beginning stages of a heart attack. Because he was outside our gates there was no legal reason to treat him. If we had hatred in our hearts, we could have let him suffer for his mistake and die. But we were not on a dangerous convoy, and there were no hostiles approaching, and we do not have hatred in our hearts.
So we brought him into our compound and put him on oxygen, and I administered several doses of nitroglycerin, started an IV, and gave him morphine and other appropriate drugs based on his changing condition. And we packaged him for flight, and called in an American Dust-off MEDEVAC Crew. I flew with him to the closest Combat Surgical Hospital.
For twenty-four hours he received the same high level of medical care that any American soldier would have received. Eventually, the hospital staff turned him over to an Iraqi ambulance when he was stable, and he was given American medications to take home. Although it was completely his fault and our guards did exactly the right thing, an American Civil Affairs officer is tracking the cab driver to help him process his claim to get his taxi cab repaired or replaced.
One week later, he returned for his cab, and he made it very clear that he doesn’t hate us either.
Father, let me hate what you hate and love what you love. Give my heart your compassion and my soul your peace.
‘Do not plot evil against your neighbor, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,’ declares the Lord.’” (Zechariah 8:17)
October 1
MISSION #2: CIVIL AFFAIRS
Iraq is an agrarian country where you find many farmers and shepherds. Most shepherds are nomads and live like the Bedouins who still roam between all Arab countries. Some own land and stay in one place. It is important for our own safety and theirs that we get to know all of our neighbors.
A few days ago, the son of a local shepherd came to our front gate and reported that the dogs had returned home but not the father. Subsequently they found some of the sheep outside a nearby abandoned Ammunition Supply Point (ASP). The ASP was not secure and is full of live unexploded ordinance (UXO).
Fearing the worst, the son asked us to help find his father.
Our officer in charge of security carefully considered the risk and asked our input, and we decided to form a search party to find him in the ASP. We found the body of the shepherd directly adjacent to a small crater, which was obviously caused by the detonation of a relatively small UXO.
We used a technique to roll him onto his back from a remote location in case the body was booby-trapped with an IED (improvised explosive device). On close examination we determined that in addition to entering a dangerous restricted area, the shepherd had obviously been tampering with the UXO, which led to his own demise.
There were no morbid jokes. If we were callous and uncivilized, we could have left the body for the dogs and
