The "Other Iraq"

We recently took a trip to a city in Northern Iraq called Dohuk. A city of approximately half a million people, it is set in a valley surrounded on three sides by mountains. As one of the largest cities in the autonomous region of Kurdistan its citizens have enjoyed unbelievable prosperity since the fall of Sadaam. We went to Dohuk to do some shopping for our IA counterparts, there are some things that are hard to find in Tal Afar. After about a two hour drive North, past the precarious Mosul Dam,

we passed a Peshmerga checkpoint, signalling the fact that we were now in Kurdistan.

Once into the city of Dohuk, we left our HMMWV's, Body Armor and Machine Guns at a Peshmerga Military Base and our hired drivers drove us in Land Rovers and new Toyota SUV's to our Hotel.

As we pulled up in front of our Hotel, the first car we saw was a Hummer H2, the first luxury SUV I had seen in over six months, it soon became clear that it wasn't an anomoly however as Infinities, Porches, and numerous BMWs cruised by the hotel within the first 10 minutes of being there. Obviously this was a little different than we were used too.
We spent three two nights in the city, and were treated like celebrities the entire time. I've never had my picture taken so much. A quick taxi ride or a short walk could get you werever you needed to go. I guess I'll just share some pictures now.