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American-loving, Peaceful Iraq?
20.6.2007
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June
20, 2007
Erbil, Kurdistan region (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."
cbn com
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