The two American hikers

I’ve been reading this story about the two American hikers who were recently released or at least after being in Iranian detention for 2 years. According to this BBC article I read they were only released on a $1 million dollar bail and were both flown to Oman by a Royal Air Force of Oman passenger jet.

So I have read they went hiking in Iraq. That brings me to the question as to why they were in a highly volatile place where there is a war going on. They went to a war zone to go hiking from what I understood. I can’t understand that.

Their parents must have told them that it was too dangerous and even their friends must have told or warned them that going to Iraq to simply go hiking is a very bad idea. I mean America has enough places to go hiking, why in any sense of reason would they travel to a war-zone?

Not only did they travel to a war-zone to supposedly go hiking, they traveled next a border of another country! Not just any country, they traveled on the Iraq-Iran border. Of course the United States has imposed sanctions against Iran, so relations between those two countries government and possibly people aren’t at their highest.

There can only be  a question of their mental intellect since they did 2 of the worst things I can think of when going hiking:

1. They went to a war-zone.
2. They traveled along-side the border of another country, of which whom is not too friendly with their own country.

So, were they spies?

It’s highly possible they were spies, although I’m pretty sure if the U.S. wanted to get spies into Iran they would have done it more covertly. Unless the U.S. is slacking in terms of their intelligence service, then I can’t think of why they would be spies or how they could possibly be spies, since it seems they were caught so easily. Perhaps bad circumstances or U.S. intelligence services didn’t realize how well-defended the Iranian border was/is.

But I don’t buy that. I think these two hikers were just not thinking of the consequences of travelling to a war-zone, let alone traveling alongside the border of what I would consider a hostile country towards the United States in terms of relations. (There is no US embassy in Iran, i.e. no diplomatic relations and the US has imposed several sanctions and has accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons)

In retrospect, just two idiots hiking, not thinking of the consequences. I mean who goes hiking in Iraq let alone alongside the border of Iran? Who the hell does this? I can’t think of anything more stupid that you could do as a US citizen. I also specifically mention “US citizen” considering the fact that the US spearheaded the attacks in Iraq and spearheads any sanctions which occur against Iran. So you can see why Iranian authorities wouldn’t be so kind and the relations between Iraq and the US are a bit shaky considering the war cost Iraq the lives of 100,000 civilians. The civilian population in my opinion could sway in terms of kindness both ways depending on the person. I.e. one Iraqi could have lost a relative because of a US bomb or anything like that, because they are in a WARZONE which involves their own country.

Now that I got that off my head. What a waste of $1 million dollars to bail these guys out.

Although they don’t deserve to be locked up in a jail for the 8 years they were sentenced, yet alone the 2 years they did serve, I will give them the benefit of the doubt that every human being has done something ultimately stupid in their life. I guess they will talk about this in the future, if god forbid, they have children.