The Iranian Hikers

First off, I’m glad that Sarah Shroud, the 32-year-old American hiker, has been released from imprisonment by the Iranian government, and I would hope that Iran would soon release her hiking compatriots, fiancé Shane M. Bauer and their friend Joshua F. Fatall, still being held on suspicion of espionage. Maybe they are all spies. I doubt it (though there’s a long history of the public not knowing what the government is up to). Let Iran prove it. But one thing I do know is that they are idiots. What in the fuck were they doing going for a hike along the border of Iraq and Iran, the former a country we’re at war with, the latter a country we may soon be at war with (and both countries on the Department of State's no travel list)? Why not hike the Appalachians? The North Shore of Lake Superior? Somewhere in Argentina? And to claim that the Iran/Iraq border is not well-marked (as Shroud did in explaining how they got into Iran, by mistake) is but to underscore their stupidity. But they are being portrayed in the press, if not as heroes, at least as victims. No, they’re not heroes or victims, they’re idiots. They shouldn’t be touted as champions of — what? freedom to hike? the right to be clueless? to be Americans? — but rather the inanity of youth. Chastened rather than acclaimed.