The view from Saint Matthew's. About 12 miles (20 km) off in the distance is Mosul, which I told the taxi driver I did not want to pass through (the shortest route between Dohuk and here passes through the edge of Mosul). He assured me he wouldn't go near it, for his own sake as well as mine. Somewhere between here and Mosul is the de facto border between Iraq and Kurdistan, the edge of the safe area. The Kurdish region has its own police and security forces that opeate check points all over the region, especially on northbound (from Iraq) roads. They were friendly and, on the few occasions that they asked to see my passport, they just welcomed me. The Kurdish people were oppressed and even attacked with chemical weapons by Saddam, so today the region is one of the few in the Middle East that likes Americans.