Jane Cook - Stories of Faith and Courage from the War in Iraq and Afghanistan

“Surprisingly, we are not a stranger to this sort of attitude. Meaning that in our own country, we discriminate against someone for what nationality they are, their education level, their social status. We distinguish our role models as multi-million-dollar sports heroes or talented actors and actresses who complain about not getting millions of dollars more than they are currently getting paid.”

“Our country is a great country. My point of this is how can we come over here and help a less than fortunate country without holding contempt or hate towards them, if we can’t do it in our country. I try to do my part over here, but the truth is over there, in the United States, I do nothing but take.”

“Ask yourself, when was the last time you donated clothes that you hadn’t worn out? When was the last time you paid for a random stranger’s cup of coffee, meal, or maybe even a tank of gas? When was the last time you helped a person with the groceries into or out of their car?”

Father, you are good; you are compassionate. Let me see your heart. Give me your compassion. Burden me with the cares of the least of these brothers of yours.

“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” (Matthew 25:40)

“Think to yourself and wonder what it would feel like if when the bill for the meal came and you were told it was already paid for. More random acts of kindness like this would change our country and our reputation as a country. It is not unknown to most of us that the rest of the world looks at us with doubt towards our humanity and morals.”

“I am not here to preach or to say ‘look at me,’ because I am just as at fault as the next person. I find that being here makes me realize the great country we have and the obligation we have to keep it that way.”

“The fourth has just come and gone and I received many emails thanking me for helping keep America great and free. I take no credit for the career path I have chosen; I can only give it to those of you who are reading this, because each one of you has contributed to me and who I am.”

“However, what I do over here is only a small percent of what keeps our country great. I think the truth to our greatness is each other. Purity, morals, and kindness, passed down to each generation through example.”

“So to all my family and friends, do me a favor and pass on the kindness, the love, the precious gift of human life to each other so that when your children come into contact with a great conflict like that we are now faced with in Iraq that they are people of humanity, of pure motives, of compassion.”

“This is our real part to keep America free!”

Marc died for these values. He was raised “in the way he should go.” Even in the stress of combat he did “not depart from it.” Marc loved by giving. On August 2, 2006, he gave the ultimate gift.

Abba, help me live by example and teach our children about your compassion. Father help me learn of your example. Your steadfast love and kindness never cease.

“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” (Proverbs 22:6)

I have been one of the government contractors operating in Iraq that you may have heard about in the news. 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)

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.