AAM is pleased to partner with The Tiziano Project over the next three months in an effort to bring the work of young journalists in Erbil, Iraq before a larger audience. The Tiziano Project provides community members in conflict, post-conflict and underreported regions with the equipment, training and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives.

AAM is pleased to partner with The Tiziano Project over the next two months in an effort to bring the work of young journalists in Erbil, Iraq before a larger audience. The Tiziano Project provides community members in conflict, post-conflict and underreported regions with the equipment, training and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives.

AAM is pleased to partner with The Tiziano Project over the next three months in an effort to bring the work of young journalists in Erbil, Iraq before a larger audience. The Tiziano Project provides community members in conflict, post-conflict and underreported regions with the equipment, training and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives.

All but 50,000 Americans will leave the country by September 1st leaving the majority of security challenges to the Iraqis themselves. As the US forces change the nature of US engagement in Iraq from combat counter-insurgency operations to stability operations, the remaining force will focus on training, not fighting.

In an event hosted by the Center for a New American Security, Michael Corbin, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Iraq, and Dr. Colin Kahl, Deputy Assistent Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, discussed the roles the State and Defense Departments will play in the following months.

Corbin emphasized that the US will continue to support the Iraqi government and the local security forces. He cited the police training project as a working partnership that began a year and a half ago that has Iraqi police patrolling the cities with American support in the background.

“We are not doing the same thing the US military is doing. We’re not doing counter-insurgency. We are working on helping with basic skills that the military has successfully imported to get the police able to deal with terrorists and insurgents. We’re working on policing, anti-corruption techniques, major crime investigations which is something the police force is working on.. This is a collaborative process where we see a potential to work with the Iraqis.”

Kahl reflected on the changing US engagement in Iraq. With the change in mission, the name of the operations in Iraq will change from Operation Iraqi Freedom to Operation New Dawn.

“The US desires a long term strategic partnership with Iraq. No one should equate the drawdown of US forces in compliance with an agreement that we struck with the sovereign government of Iraq with US disengagement.”

He cited the ongoing challenge along the Arab-Kurd faultline with issues in Kirkuk, and the disputed boundary areas, with regard to oil reserves, and the distribution of those revenues which continue to be a source of tension. Here he believes is one of the areas where US forces can continue to play an important role.

In the program, Iraq, the Next Act, America Abroad‘s Sean Carberry traveled to Iraq to explore this thorny and potentially destabilizing issue — the status of the city of Kirkuk. Listen to his segment >

AAM is pleased to partner with The Tiziano Project over the next three months in an effort to bring the work of young journalists in Erbil, Iraq before a larger audience. The Tiziano Project provides community members in conflict, post-conflict and underreported regions with the equipment, training and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives.

According to Stephen Biddle, Roger Hertog Senior Fellow for Defense Policy at the Council on Foreign Relations, early rapid progress lead to overly optimistic sentiment on the part of the military and the government. He compares Afghanistan now to Iraq in June 2007, near the beginning of the surge of American troops. Biddle argues that we must wait through a “fighting cycle” — one year to 18 months to see where we stand in Afghanistan. He cites the current situation in Helmand Province as an example of a successful campaign: the Taliban were kicked out, they tried to re-establish, the Taliban failed and now the province is reasonably stable. If at the end of the current fighting cycle, in places such as Kandahar, or the situation deteriorates in what were once safe havens, it will be hard to sustain public support.

The stakes are particularly high because of Afghanistan’s proximity to nuclear Pakistan. Pakistan’s internal war conflict and access to nuclear weapons leaves no doubt that an unstable Afghanistan could again become a base for launching attacks against the US. Biddle goes on to state that although the deadline for troop withdrawl is August 2011, he thinks the US will not abandon Afghanistan and that may change some perceptions in Afghanistan concerning security and governance.

America Abroad journalist Sean Carberry embeds with the military in Paktya and Khost Provinces in southeastern Afghanistan to see how the counterinsurgency campaign is playing out near Afghanistan’s lawless border with Pakistan. Listen >

This story was written by Sahar Alani, a 24-year old reporter living in Erbil.

Yakub Najmaldeen, 31, faced the same challenges as many Iraqis did when he was a child. He was poor. He had a big family to take care of. At the age of 9, during the Iran-Iraq War, Yakub made just a few dinar each day by carrying stacks of bread loaves on his head and selling them to people on the street. He pressed himself against the walls of stores and cried when sirens alerted the city that Iranian bombers were nearby.

Yakub didn’t accept his conditions. He decided to throw everything he had into improving his and his family’s life. In two decades, Yakub went from a peddler in the streets to a vastly wealthy businessman.

His father was sick and his family needed money for medicine, food and a roof over their heads.

“I helped myself and all my family, by myself,” Yakub said.

As a child, he wandered the streets of Erbil from 6 in the morning to 9 at night, offering people bread and cigarettes.

In 1989, at age 10, his father lent him 650 dinar to start a money exchange business. “I remember I earned 750 dinar during the first 15 days, which was really great,” he said.

In 1991, Iraq freely traded with Turkey and Iran. So, at the age of 12, Yakub decided to travel to Haji Omran to sell cigarettes to traders, who crossed through the border town every day. He began to watch how they conducted their sales.

“I got the idea about how to do business [from the traders]. After I collected some money from selling cigarettes and helping them to carry their heavy things, I decided to try my own hand at their business,” he explained.

That same year, Yakub began his first real business by smuggling tomato paste from Iran and selling it in Kirkuk and Erbil.

He knew that tomato paste was hard to find in Iraq and very expensive to buy. He planned buy cans of it from Iran, where he could find it inexpensively and sell it at a profit in Kirkuk. But the plan failed. No one wanted to buy his tomato paste.

“I lost all my money in that business, so I tried to take another chance. I moved to work in Alton Kobre, a small village between Kirkuk and Erbil, with Mobile Center, in 2003.” In the village he learned the basics of mobile phone sales.

“I bought two Nokia mobiles and I sold them each with a dollar profit, then I bought more and only made a few more dollars on it,” Yakub said.

In 2006, Yakub returned to Erbil to expand his mobile phone business and little by little, he grew his company.

In 20 years Yakub has tried many different jobs, but his most recent venture has proven to be his most successful – it now consists of four stores and 10 employees.

“I learned that any poor person should give business a try. I started from nothing and every day I have to work from 10 a.m. to 12 a.m. to keep my company going.”

Yakub isn’t satisfied with the business he has now. He will always be concerned about losing the businesses that he built. “People should try their chances and never give up if they fail.” To Yakub, a misstep isn’t the end of the world. It’s just a chance to find a new direction.

AAM is pleased to partner with The Tiziano Project in an effort to bring the work of young journalists in Erbil, Iraq before a larger audience. The Tiziano Project provides community members in conflict, post-conflict and underreported regions with the equipment, training and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives.

AAM is pleased to partner with The Tiziano Project over the next three months in an effort to bring the work of young journalists in Erbil, Iraq before a larger audience. The Tiziano Project provides community members in conflict, post-conflict and underreported regions with the equipment, training and affiliations necessary to report their stories and improve their lives.

Probably the most character (or more appropriately, characters) I have experienced so far was at lunch today. I sat down at City VIPs, one of the many small street-front restaurants this afternoon. It is basically a fast food place with a few Moroccan dishes. I was the only American there, and the only person eating a Moroccan dish (I had a chicken tagine) rather than a burger or pizza or pasta.

Within minutes of sitting down, an odd assortment of street vendors and beggars passed by my table to offer their wares or solicit handouts. First was a shoeshine guy. I’ve noticed more shoeshine guy in this city than I can remember seeing anywhere else.

The shoeshine guy was followed by an old woman begging for change, and then another woman begging for change. Then came a kid about 10-years old selling cologne, perfume, and pens. He was followed by a man selling gum, and he either had about six packs of gum wadded up in his cheek, or he had a rather unfortunate deformity.

Next, a man walked by selling a mix of folded maps, and large laminated maps – not one of the more practical items to sell on the street.

As I sat and ate, this parade of vendors continued. A total of five shoeshine guys tried their luck – one rudely banged his brush on my table to get my attention and not only ignored my polite “no”, but also failed to notice that my shoes were freshly shined (by the free machine in the hotel lobby).

I counted a total of six young men who were selling pirated CDs and DVDs, three kids selling nail clippers (two were also selling key chains and batteries), three young men selling sunglasses (always fascinates me when people on the street try to sell me sunglasses when I’m already wearing a pair), a man selling new shoes, another beggar, and two men who were selling what looked like sheets or think blankets. One guy had a little of everything, sunglasses, a book, a radio, and who knows what else in his bag. And the guy with the maps made another pass as well.

The entire time, not a single customer at the restaurant or the café next door bought anything. No one got a shoeshine. None of the beggars received anything (other than a scolding from the waiters).

Given the economics of a large supply of street vendors selling the same items/services, and the apparently minimal demand, it’s hard to imagine that any of these people make enough to even feed themselves. Perhaps some of the young men are students or have other work, but it still doesn’t even seem like selling bootleg DVDs or nail clippers on the street is going to do much to augment other income. But, if nothing else, it adds a little color to a quiet city.