Between Iraq and a Hard Place. Before I moved to study Arabic in Jordan, friends said I should "wait until the Middle East calms down." They were even more emphatic after Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. Instead, we moved to Kurdistan, where people live "between Iraq and a hard place." This is the history of remarkable missionaries who came before us. They learned lessons the hard way; that hasn't changed. The "great experiment" that they undertook for 200 years did not produce the results they hoped for. No doubt the next generation of missionaries will learn their own lessons, sometimes the hard way, but with more wisdom for having been careful students of the past.