Michael Totten files a report from my neck of the woods. Please please please give it a read--he verbalizes many of things I've felt, seen, and experienced in the five weeks I've spent here between the week in November and now.

For example, he's absolutely right when he talks about how bleak and drab Erbil (Hawler) looks. Thankfully, the city we live in is much prettier, and--according to a person quoted half-way down this article--much safer ("I'll go anywhere in those cities" says a British reporter who's been in Kurdistan since the beginning of the war).

I know where Trotten is coming from when he alludes to his not knowing exactly how safe and secure things are. I've been there. My first experience in Iraq was riding "shotgun" (or, more appropriately, riding "AK-47") as we drove 2.5 hours from Erbil to our city, and that definitely made me a tad nervous.

But I also know exactly what he means when he says this:

I felt okay, and I was oddly happy to be there. But I couldn’t get it out of my mind: I’m in Iraq I’m in Iraq I’m in Iraq I’m in Iraq.

Those two sentences pretty much sum up how I was feeling during our weeklong trip here in November.

Again, please give it a read.