Iraq. It seems to be known more as war than an actual country where people live, work, and study.

But it is a country, and a beautiful one at that, despite the seemingly endless shenanigans it continually endures, whether that’s at the hands of despotic dictators, western invaders, or the cancer within it.

Still, one bastion of Iraqi freedom lies in the north, where the Kurdish Pershmerga resisted Saddam Hussain, were instrumental in the (probably temporary) defeat of of Islamic State, and, for complicated reasons, are sworn enemies of Turkey.

For even more complicated reasons, despite their sacrifice, the Peshmerga have since been largely abandoned by the west, but they have at least been left with some cool hardware with which to defend their territory.

This neat Peshmerga-issue Humvee comes from Evan M of Flickr, who has equipped it with a variety of equipment, chief among which is an enormous TOW missile mounted on the roof, which could probably reduce most things to a smoking crater if required.

Head to Northern Iraq courtesy of Evan’s photostream via the link above. The bits the aren’t smoking craters really are lovely.