,” a region where democracy and security thrived, but today Iraqi Kurdistan is on fire. Security forces gun down protestors, Kurdish civilians return the favor, and protestors burn political party flags and even photos of Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) founder Mulla Mustafa Barzani. Iraqi Kurdistan as the other Iraq was always a lie: The region was a fiefdom for two ruling families—the Barzanis and Talibanis—who, in practice, stood above the law. While Iraqis unseated incumbents in Baghdad, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) Masoud Barzani—until eighteen months ago, the president of the region, long sought to sidestep term limits simply by extending the duration of his final term. Security was also tenuous, based less on the competence of the Parastin, the KDP’s security agency long run by Barzani’s eldest son Masrour, than by the KDP’s ability to channel resources, especially the region’s oil wealth, into a pyramid scheme of corruption. Simply put, the Barzanis had few friends whom they did not pay.