this region became less developed than the rest of Iraq. When the region became under the Kurdish authority they tried hard to develop and give special attention to the region and especially Erbil since it is the capital of the region. Only in a few years the KRG region developed dramatically, before Erbil used to have one public university (Salahaddin University) and now it has many universities; institutions, private universities. This is considered as a great educational development for the Kurds
I was deployed to Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo when Operation Iraqi Freedom kicked off. I remember wondering how this war would affect my life or the direction of my career and unit. In March of 2003 I found out. Because of the war, our replacements, already having been trained for real world action, were sent to Iraq, extending my already long six month tour to ten. The start and end of that war, as a whole, had its effects on not just me and my unit, as I was deployed there twice, but on the whole