February 13, 2006

Kurdistan: The OTHER Iraq

So much bad news about Iraq, it's good to see a reporter actually taking the time to visit Kurdistan. Incidentally, I support Kurdish independence. Of all our allies in the region, the Kurds have proved the most dependable. Far more than the Turks whose alliance is less necessary now than it has ever been.

Why don't you drop Michael J. Totten a line and give him the thumbs up for going to Kurdistan:

I believed him, partly because I wanted to believe him, but also because it lined up with everything I had heard and read about Kurdistan before I got there. Yes, it’s Iraq. But the war is in a different part of the country. There are no Kurdish insurgents. The Peshmerga guard Kurdistan’s de-facto border with ruthless effectiveness. Those who attempt to cross away from the checkpoints and the roads are ambushed by border patrols. Anyone who doesn’t speak Kurdish as their native language stands out among the general population. Iraqi Kurds, out of desperate necessity, have forged one of the most watchful and vigilant anti-terrorist communities in the world. Terrorists from elsewhere just can’t operate in that kind of environment. Al Qaeda members who do manage to infiltrate are hunted down like rats. This conservative Muslim society did a better job protecting me from Islamist killers than the U.S. military could do in the Green Zone in Baghdad.
FYI--the main insurgent group in the region is The Army of Ansar al-Sunna. But Kurdistan is so well guarded that the group generally (with the occasional exception) operates outside of Kurdistan proper.

By Rusty Shackleford, Ph.D. at 01:25 PM | |