UPCOMING TRAVEL: Iran and Afghanistan

Dont forget to pack your mideast-expresscard. Another name for it is an AK-47.

Sean-Paul, you may be a brave man, you may be one of those adrenaline junkies. It certainly sounds as if the trips may be exciting.

I'm neither. I'm just researching a book on Central Asia.

I would join you but I have this unnatural fear of violent death.

Well, someone has to go.

well it is nice you have the option not to go if violence flares which is more than israelis have..i think of how little choices israeli young men have that have to be on reserve duty and have to go into Lebanon and fight Hezballah dressed as civilians ..
one thing you have going for you is that after publishing in gather the articles displaying israel as hating the arabs-god knows where you get your sources-you will find many friends in Iran that agree with your opinions..
you seemed so liberal at first but then you show your claws..digging into israel at a time when israel is under attack and is fighting a cowardlyenemy that hides behind women and children..
yes, i think you chose your destination well.. your idea fix about israel will only get backing there..
just remember as an American you have the option not to go to places where rockets land, something isrealis have no choices about..as for the Labanese they made their choices when they let the Hezballah take over..
perhaps destiny will allow you to meet the Iranians in situations that expose their foreign policy beyond the mask ..though i frankly doubt you can see anything beyond your preconceived ideas about the middle east

Good luck on your journey, and be safe. Can't wait to read your book!

Sigalit, that's crap and you know it. I've met Israelis in China, in India, in Turkey, In Gerogia, all over Europe including Greece and in Belize. Israelis can travel just as much as any first world developed nation's citizens can. Now the Palestinians? Or the Lebanese? What about them?

Please, spare me your pieties.

Sean-Paul- not that it has much to do with your article or anything, but at work to travel in the middle east we have two passports. There are places we cannot go if it has an Israeli stamp on it. We get permission to get a passport for Israel, and another one for anyplace else.

I'm aware that if you have an Israeli stamp in your passport you are not allowed entry into Iran, but other countries I do not know. I wouldn't be surprised if Saudia and Syria were two of them. But again, I don't know. Just so I am clear, you are saying that in your work you have two passports. One for Israel and Israel friendly countries, one for non-Israel friendly countries? Have I got it right?

That's correct, if needed.

Thank you for the clarification. I remember there was a time that a Taiwanese stamp in one's passport would preclude one from entering China and vice versa.

Can I stow away in your luggage?

Why in the heck would you go some where the govenment has told Americans not to travel......I guess we'll have to spend more money if you get into trouble trying to get you out. Just like all the people we had to help get their arses out of Lebanon and Isreal. When they all say death to the Americans. Explain to me why???? wondering minds want to know...

Because I am writing a book on Central Asia and need to go. Furthermore, I accept full responsibility for my own affairs and am quite capable of finding my way out of the country should disaster ensue. I've done more than enough traveling, especially in Central Asia, to know how to get myself out of a jam. I'm not like some lazy suburbanite who dirves an SUV and goes to have a vacation and finds himself in the middle of a war zone and doesn't know what to do.

Besides, had I limited my travel to where the US government told me was safe, I would never have traveled past the safe and easily elegant confines of Western Europe and my life would have been a lot less fulfilling thus far to boot.

Is that a good enough explanation?