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)