Good News Watch

[darrels joy]

Good News Watch
One of the warnings we kept hearing about Iraq was that with Saddam Hussein gone, the country would be consumed by ethnic and religious warfare, ? la Yugoslavia. But Reuters reports northern Iraq is seeing more tourism than terrorism:

Saddam effectively sealed off the North to most ordinary Iraqis after the Kurds who dominate it rebelled against him in 1991. The Kurds established their own autonomous zone, with the help of Western powers whose warplanes watched over it.

With Saddam gone, thousands of Iraqis from the mainly Arab center and South of the country spent the summer rediscovering what used to be a favorite vacation area, its cooler climate and mountains a welcome change from intense heat and flat desert.

The tourism revival has allowed many Iraqi Kurds and Arabs to get to know each other again after a decade of separation. Younger Iraqi Arabs have been able to see one of the most beautiful parts of their country for the first time.

The reacquainting has not been without problems. But in many cases it has been notably free of rancor despite the repression Saddam's security forces inflicted on the Kurdish population and in contrast to widespread pre-war predictions of ethnic strife.

The Washington Post reports from Baghdad that Iraq's first Burger King has opened, at Baghdad International Airport. "Part creature comfort, part therapy for homesick troops, its sales have reached the top 10 among all Burger King franchises on Earth in the five months since it opened," the Post reports.