3 American hikers arrested in Iran

So...

They went hiking... in IRAQ.

Potential Darwin award candidates? You know, if things don't work out...

The mountainous border area is a popular hiking destination and well-known for its thick growth of pistachio trees" Its a popular hiking destination? Must have been some serous hikers.

Hikers, huh? Could be true, dumber things have been done. Good luck on convincing the Iranians that with American forces at war in countries on two of Iran's borders.

Hiking in Iraq... Are any comments really necessary?

Definitely Darwinists, Triumvere.

I wonder what the hiking is like around the North Korean border? They've got lots of mountains, should be pretty good - senic, right? Perhaps they should make that their next destinaion.

Or there's rolling dusty mountains of hospitable Afghanistan.....

While the above reactions are certainly understandable misunderstandings, they are misunderstandings. There is a light year's difference between the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and the rest of Iraq, which unfortunately has become a cesspool both literally and figuratively. While there is certainly reason to be cautious, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq is home to many expatriots from various countries and they live fairly quiet and uneventful lives and enjoy quite a lot of freedom to travel around for the most part. There is actually quite a lot of tremendously beautiful scenery to see in the Kurdistan Region.

FYI:

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS165045+17-Jun-2009+PRN20090617

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdistan

It seems the only unfortunate mistake these hikers made was accidently, illegally entering another country. Hopefully, this will be seen as such and they will be allowed to be released from custody.

Probably were not in Iran at all...more than likely spotted by Iranian patrol near the border, and a cross border abduction operation was set up in order to get Iran some bargaining foothold with the US. Obviously, this was not a well thought out vacation.

I prefer to vacation in lovely Rwanda myself, but Iran is a close second. There's nothing more relaxing than the chants of "Death to America!".

Well that was smart of them. I'm sorry, but if the country is in a volatile state, I wouldn't be willing to vacation there until I felt the situation was stable. Some people get a rush out of being in danger.

3 American hikers

Dumb, Dumber, and Dumbest.

I hear its beautiful this time of year in WAZIRISTAN so I want to check it out! I'm bringing my girlfriend who wants to interview the local tribemen for an articles she's writing. Be back next week.