The most terrifying thing about Iraq

It's not the border crossing, not the constant military presence, nor the War Zone that existed 15 minutes drive from where I was, the most terrifying thing about Iraq was the drive to the border from Turkey.
Getting to Cizre was easy, I got up and found the minibus station, 2 minutes into my search, I got intercepted by a guy who wanted to know where I was from, he then took me to the minibus that would take me to the border and helped me buy my ticket. People are incredibly friendly here. Then I waited for the bus, and got chatting with a guy from Silope(the border town) on his way back from studying medicine in Azerbaijan. He was an interesting fellow, interested in Canada, and eager to practice his english with me.
The bus itself went through some cool looking places, but the best was the edge of the mountains in Mardin province. It was interesting to see a city built on the side of mountains rather than in the valleys. It was about 6pm by the time the bus stopped in Cizre. Where my new friend from the bus introduced me to his cousin who ran a taxi service across the border into Iraq and he would love to give me a good deal.
So off I went with this new guy, who all I knew about him was that his name was Salmon, he drive a Taxi across the border and he didn't speak a word of english and had rather poor Turkish. However his cousin vouched for him so I figured I'd get there fine. It started out well, he offered me a Cigarette asked were I was from, my name, and my passport, all things I expected. Then we stopped on the outskirts of the city and he got out and started speaking to a guy sitting outside of a small building looking in rather poor repair.

A note about the deep South East of Turkey, land of the Kurds, they run the show, the kids don't learn Turkish, everyone speaks Kurdish instead, there was massive military presence, the area seemed heavily guarded with guard posts and military checkpoints aplenty. Not all of this is attributable to Syria next door.
Much of this region looked like in could use a coat of paint, lotso of rubble, lots of poor areas, all things which I would attribute to being an unwanted people in a region which for 20 of the last 25 years was in a constant state of civil war. These people came out on the loosing side. The Kurds are a people plagued by strive, wherever they go in the land they have lived in since the Golden Age of Greece they now remain unwanted.
The physical place was kind of depressing, but the people were remarkably resilient. They went about their daily business, enjoying life, living each day as one to be enjoyed. These were a people who know how to live no matter what life has dealt you. It was an experience and a half.

Back the taxi, this place turned out to be owned by Salmons cousin(or rando guy who needed a ride) who had access to 2L water bottles full of gasoline, which seemed to be in exchange for a ride a bit out of town. Once this passenger left Salmon lit another cigarette, and started texting someone, hardly looking at the road, which had potholes like a golf ball has dimples. Then the back driver side door popped open, going 100km/h. This prompts Salmon to look at me laugh, say a bunch of words that seemed rather vulgar turns around, and without stopping any of his previous activities turned around and closed it. "Oh, my!" is what I said to him, he nodded and we continued.
2mins later he reaches over into the glove compartment and takes out a laser pointer. Shows me a some cool things he could do with it, make it project pictures, or look like a disco ball. Then he starts pointing it to people on the street. He claimed it was military grade and shot 4km. That frightened me, because after informing me of this he aimed it at the police checkpoint we drove past,then he started aiming it at military outposts, then oncoming traffic, laughing the whole time.
Then we started to come upon traffic, so we cross the ditch and start driving down the wrong side of the divided highway shooting the laser into the eyes of oncoming traffic and trucks stopped on the right side of the highway.
We picked up another guy looking to cross the border, who eagerly joined in with the laser pointer fun. This continued until we made it to the border, which was a fairly simply procedure, car stops, passports are handed over they get handed back we procede to the Turkish military checkpoint, we get out, they check the car for guns, bombs and the like, wave us through then customs who asked who the white guy was, stamped our passports and let us through. Then we crossed the bridge into Iraq, stopped got out and got shuffled into and office where they took my temperature asked me if I was sick or if I had h1n1, I said no, they let me out, I walked across the street, got given a coffee and asked the standard questions, then they asked where I was going. They told me not stray from those places, and emphasized with actions, sound effects and serious looks on their faces "Mosul, Kirkut, Baghdad, no go, they kill you". I followed their advice, I don't think I'd be too fond of car bombings.

The first thing I did when I entered Iraq was have a pee, 10 hours after leaving my hotel in Diyarbakir, 4 litres of water and tea, I had not ever stopped long enough to go pee, and darned if I wanted to test how long a bus would wait for me without being able to ask how long it would wait.

All in all, it was a fantastic learning experience which would help me with all my other border crossings on my journey.
I hopped in a Cab and for 20$US I got taken right to my hotel ~65KM away in Dohuk.