I heard on the network news today that things just couldn’t be worse in Iraq. I heard that the Iraqis are miserable and want us to leave there. I heard the whole situation is just hopeless and we, Americans, are just making it worse. Of course, this isn’t what the Iraqis are saying at all. It’s also not what our Soldiers are saying. In fact, the only people I hear saying things like this are those who want to keep hammering on their hatred of George Bush.

Even if it means hoping their own country will lose a war, just to prove that George Bush was wrong.

How much have we heard about Kurdistan in Iraq? Very little I would say. Remember the Kurds? They are the ones that Saddam Hussein gassed with those weapons of mass destruction he didn’t have. He attempted to do some ethnic cleansing to rid Iraq of the Kurds.

Well, when Saddam was toppled (thank you AMERICAN SOLDIERS!) the Kurds were free to pursue their own ways. They chose to stay out of the power grabs of the other ethnic groups in Iraq that worked so hard to keep them down. They chose not to get involved in blood libels. They chose, for the most part, to embark on the pursuit of happiness.

Michael Totten has recently been there and writes about the result of their liberation from the persecution of a dictator.

A bookseller in the souk in Erbil

Bookseller Erbil

Businessmen without bodyguards or guns
check email in the lobby of the luxurious Khan Zad resort hotel
just outside Erbil.

Men With Laptops in Kurdistan

Erbil’s new mall takes shape next to the souk

New mall in Erbil

The Kurds are emerging as the power in Iraq. Not because they are dominating the other tribes in Iraq, but because they have chosen to be responsible for them selves.

Read Michael Totten’s article here. The pictures above are from Totten’s blog.

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