As insurgency ravaged Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan sought to depict itself as an island of stability, security, and even affluence. It pitched itself as a democratic oasis and a haven of religious freedom. Whether out of naivete or greed, Western governments embraced and amplified the fiction.

Reality transcends. Not only do the two dominant political families — the Barzanis and Talabanis —despise and undermine each other, but within each family cousins backstab cousins. Among the Barzanis, for example, Prime Minister Masrour Barzani and his brother and enforcer Waysi Barzani marginalize their cousin Nechirvan, the regional president. The region boasts five-star hotels and third-world hospitals. Salaries go unpaid while wealthy elites drive Lamborghinis and toast diplomats with bottles of whiskey worth tens of thousands of dollars. Meanwhile, many risking better lives in Europe but freezing in Belarussian forests or drowning in the Mediterranean are not Syrians fleeing war but Kurds fleeing corruption.