Iraqi Kurdistan

The United States is once again complicit in the torture of Iraqi citizens, this time at the hands of Iraqi special forces.
A further video has been released showing the torture and ‘field execution’ of Iraqi civilians. Their crime? Being Sunni Muslims who had the misfortune to live in regions in and around Mosul that were captured by ISIS.
RT has released footage which shows the brutal execution of an unarmed Iraqi man from December of 2016.

I thought about writing this essay when I was working in Iraqi Kurdistan, not far from the city of Mosul, one of the areas overrun by ISIS.
Since my last visit at the end of 2014, the entire “Kurdistan Region” has been collapsing. Unemployment has been on the rise, unofficially reaching 50%, poverty is rampant, official numbers are massaged. Salaries have not been paid for months, and the influx of refugees arriving from Mosul are often in near starvation, relying only on their relatives and friends for help.

It used to be presented as a huge success story. We were told that in the middle of a ravished Middle East, surrounded by despair, death and pain, a land of milk and honey was shining brightly like a torch of hope.
Photo: Andre Vltchek
Or was it more like a delicious cake surrounded by rot? This exceptional place was called Iraqi Kurdistan, or officially the “Kurdistan Region.”