A cross between a news segment and a tourism video, this 12-minute piece from last night’s show makes the case that not only should Kurdistan be a sovereign state, it pretty much already is. The coming confrontation with Iraqi Arabs over Kirkuk means bad days ahead from jihadi car bombs or, potentially, military action by Turkey, so the tranquility here is a tiny bit misleading. Still, the fact that they’ve gotten this far with the foulness to their south is genuinely amazing. You’ll gawk all the way through.

Exit question: 60 Minutes attributes the difference between Kurdistan and Baghdad to the lack of sectarian tensions in the former, but Anbar is almost entirely Sunni and they’re not putting up any shopping malls these days from what I understand. So what’s the real difference?

Click the image to watch.