So, where did it start. We took a trip north in our Strykers. It was a cold morning. It was fine after your hands lost feeling. We arrived in Dohuk early in the morning, which is shown in this picture. What you can see in the background if you zoom in, is the Kurdish flag painted on the mountain. At this point, we dropped our gear and cleared our weapons. A bit wierd I would say. The change was almost immediate though. The air was clean, the people waved, the infrastructure was decades ahead, and best of all, there were no worries of people shooting at you or attempting to blow you up. How did we know this? The Iraqi Army we work with are Peshmirga (the Militia of Kurdistan). There is a set number placed on by the Iraqi Government, but there is still a great deal in comparison to the total population of Kurdistan. We were treated as honored guests and I know we were not the first. There were a many people that spoke english. It was definitely akward at first though.