(Huffington Post) – When I visited Iraq last year I drove up to Zawa ridge from where you can look down on to Duhok or if you look to the south, on clear day, you can see Mosul. At night Duhok is a bright and bustling mini metropolis illuminated by headlights, street lights and a giant flashing ferris wheel. The lights in Mosul went out when ISIS arrived in June 2014, now it is occasionally illuminated by artillery shells or lines of tracer arcing into the city. As I sat there drinking sweet Kurdish tea I remember being struck how different two places a mere 30 minute drive apart could be.
