Tips for Dodging Terrorists

Terrorist or just a poor driver? In Baghdad, it’s not always easy to know. Thank God for the anti-jihadi driving school!

At an anti-terrorist driving school, I learned how to ram out of the way a vehicle being used as a roadblock. Clearing a blocking car isn't difficult (more later). Instead, the challenge is to distinguish between poor driving and a terrorist attack."Iraqis are terrible drivers," the instructor said (sensitivity was not his specialty).

"It's extremely difficult to tell a bad driver from a terrorist." The instructor also said that after Baghdad fell, a lot of bad Iraqi drivers were wrecked. These were simple, innocent Iraqis — just bad drivers whose actions were misconstrued as threatening.