I went to Iraq despite being against the invasion (although very pro CIA/JSOC activities in Afghanistan in 2001, but anti Big Army stuff in Afghanistan -- I met some of the "first in" guys a few years later and double down on that belief now) to 1) get as far away from a girl I'd broken up with in 2003 in the US and 2) to do a startup IX business with some Iraqi expats (who'd moved to London in the 70s-80s) and 3) be close to the biggest news event happening in the world and see what it was like up close.

The helping-out-with-medical happened 5-6 years later and was entirely due to the company I was contracting for having some connections at the founder level with Christian and medical charities who were also helping out there -- I can't really take any credit for "volunteering" for that, it was much closer to "voluntold", but I'm glad I did it.