My trip to Kurdistan with the Gold Star parents in 2006 was like a field trip. Erbil was very peaceful back then. Heavily armed and protected but peaceful.
I only saw one bad guy--in a village during a day trip. He was in an alley, wearing all black and had a beard. His dark eyes were smoldering with murderous hate when this America spotted him before he ducked out of sight.
But the Kurds had control then. The terror attacks there came later after Obama took office.
Ah, yes. Erbil was nice. I went there on a brief business trip, also in 2006, to meet with subcontractors we were working with to build an IPLO compound there.
I was very surprised that we could just walk in the town to restaurants with no protective gear on. We sure weren’t doing anything like that in Baghdad.
It was almost like a vacation.