An American-loving, Peaceful Iraq?

Powerful explosions rock the landscape, sending clouds of debris thousands of feet in the air. Car bombs rip through crowded markets, killing many and wounding hundreds more. These have been the images that have dominated our television screens for the past four years. But this is not the whole story. There's another side of Iraq that is rarely profiled in the mainstream media. It's a side of Iraq that is peaceful and stable, free of insurgents and bombings. It's a place where even Americans are loved! Welcome to the other Iraq called Kurdistan. Located 200 miles north from the mayhem of Baghdad, this region is home to the Kurds of Iraq. They are on a building frenzy. Everywhere you look, there are luxury hotels going up, new shopping malls, amusement parks, sports complexes, highways, schools, hospitals, and parks. A half-dozen new residential apartments have already gone up in the last six months. "The changes in Kurdistan in just the last couple of years have been amazing, at all levels," said Mahmoud, a resident of Erbil. "The economy, construction, wealth, you name it. We are just exploding." The government here is even advertising Kurdistan as a tourist destination. There are two international airports with daily flights to Europe and the Middle East. Herish Muhamad of the Kurdistan Regional Government said, "And this makes the access to Kurdistan more easy and attractive." The Kurds have money and are spending big. At one car dealership, owner Muhamad Hayder is struggling to keep up with demand. His hottest selling cars on the lot: the Chevy Tahoe and the Hammer. "Now that we have the spare parts to these and other foreign cars," he said, "people are buying more of them and they are paying cash up front!" In Erbil, the largest city and the capital of the Kurdistan region, there is a massive apartment complex called "Dream City" being built. When it's done, the homes will be selling for over $1 million. Hagob Yacob, from the Kurdish Ministry of Tourism, said, "Kurdistan is really secure and we just don't pay attention to the media propaganda or what's being raised in the media that our country is really dangerous. Kurdistan is entirely different from the other parts of Iraq." So different that the folks like to think of themselves as a separate country -- and in many ways they are. They have their own president, their own army, even their own flag. And when you arrive at the airport, they stamp your passport with a Kurdish visa. Above all, they are Kurds and proud of it. "I want to represent the Kurds with honor," Dunya Abubakr, an aspiring actress, said. "The world needs to know that something good can come from this part of the world, despite all the bad news you hear." But just how safe is it in Kurdistan? Well, as someone who has done more than half a dozen assignments in Baghdad, I would affirm that walking down the street would be extremely dangerous in any other part of Iraq. But today, the marketplaces are filled with people enjoying a level of security not seen in the rest of Iraq. The Kurdish government likes to boast that since March 2003, not a single coalition or American soldier has died, nor has a single foreigner been kidnapped. That's thanks, in part, to the hundreds of checkpoints leading in and out of all the major cities. Kurdish Police official Bilbas Shaker said, "The public also plays a big role in helping us keep our region safe and secure, and any time they see or hear something suspicious, they call us." And the longer that Baghdad and other parts of Iraq burn, the more the Kurds seem determined to secure this new way of life. "I am a college student," said Ali Shahab Ahmed, a resident of Erbil. "But I'm ready at any moment to take up a gun and defend this territory." Today, for the Kurds of Northern Iraq, America's decision to remove Saddam Hussein meant new life and new freedoms. One Kurd remarked, "The truth is that, without America's help, this place would still be evil." Today, as the American-Iraqi experiment with democracy faces enormous challenges in the region, the Kurds of Iraq have a message for the American families who have sacrificed their children for this nation: "We were once treated like flies under Saddam, not even considered human beings," Erbil resident Hazem said. "Today, the blood shed by your children is a blessed blood. They have saved a nation and a people. Please, never forget this."