Michael J. Totten, writing from Dream City, Kurdistan, describes a very impressive construction project in industrious Iraqi Kurdistan. He also includes pictures from architectural drawings and models.

Totten’s introduction to the Kurdish accomplishment:

ERBIL, IRAQ – Kurdistan is a place of the mind. It doesn’t exist on any maps unless the maps are made by the Kurds. Southern Kurdistan is known to the rest of the world as Northern Iraq. Northern Kurdistan is described as Eastern Turkey. Southwestern Kurdistan is Northeastern Syria. And Southeastern Kurdistan is Northwestern Iran.

In no country are Kurds closer to realizing their dream of freedom and independence than they are in Iraq. They are wrapping up the finishing touches on their de-facto sovereign state-within-a-state, a fact on the ground that will not easily be undone. And they’re transforming the hideously decrepit physical environment left to them by Saddam Hussein – a broken place that is terribly at odds with the Kurdistan in their hearts and in their minds – into something beautiful and inspiring, the kind of place you might like to live in someday yourself.

The heart of the new Kurdistan is soon to be known as the Dream City, a massive construction site going up on the outskirts of Erbil.

Read the whole thing.

I am very glad to see Michael on his latest beat. We're all lucky to have him wandering about. Our military men and women may be putting their lives on the line to make this possible, but he lays his life on the line, too, to keep the successes visible. Kurdistan is an country autonomous region full of success stories.

Via Mudville Gazette.