Downtown Erbil

Michael Totten visits Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan and sees a huge transformation. It's not only physical, new buildings (in Dream City), shops, offices, roads, roadsigns (but not sewers), it's also civil. There seems to be a working democracy in place where only a few years ago there was desolation. And in its success, there may an omen for the future.

Iraqi Kurdistan is de-facto independent already. The three northernmost provinces exist as a liberal-democratic state-within-a-state with their own parliament, their own laws, their own immigration policies, and their own military, border guards, and police. That much was already known. The region now, though, is even closer to formal sovereignty and actual independence than it recently was.

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