The U.S. soldier and the Iraqi boy he saved

On July 12, 2007, four years after the start of the Iraq War, U.S. Apache helicopters attacked the Al-Amin al-Thaniyah neighborhood of New Baghdad. Twelve-year-old Sajad and his 4-year-old sister Duah were seriously injured. They were rescued by a U.S. soldier. However, their father was killed. For those two children, life would never be the same again. In December 2022, a CGTN film crew tracked down Sajad in Baghdad. By chance, the crew also found the soldier who saved Sajad and his sister back in 2007. Ethan McCord, a former U.S. army ranger, was among the first U.S. soldiers to arrive on the scene of the Apache attack.
He agreed to be interviewed for "The Legacy of War" after learning that the CGTN crew had made contact with the siblings whose lives he had saved. It was the first time he had heard any news about them, since carrying them from their father's destroyed van. Speaking to the camera, he says: "I feel used, I feel used for being in Iraq. We should have never been there. " The crew subsequently contacted him several times, to confirm that he had no objections to his interview being aired, considering that it might jeopardize his safety. But Ethan believes it's important for him that the story is told, and he just wants to say sorry.