Iran and World

He was certainly brave, but was he crazy? That’s what I wondered when I picked up Rory Stewart’s The Places in Between, an account of the Scotsman’s 2002 solo walk across Afghanistan. That’s right, he walked. Many Afghans doubted he would survive the journey. Just weeks after the fall of the Taliban, in the dead of winter, in some of the most remote and difficult terrain in the inhabited world, he went from village to village on foot. Relying on the tradition of hospitality, Stewart found welcome, sustenance, and shelter (mostly, but not always) graciously offered by people who had very little to share.

Stewart, who is both a British Foreign Service officer (he served in southern Iraq after the Iraq War — the subject of another good book, The Prince of the Marshes) and a Harvard professor, relied upon his knowledge of Farsi and Urdu, his understanding of Afghan history and culture, and his own hardy constitution to get him through. For several years, Stewart lived in Kabul, where he established a charitable foundation seeking to promote local crafts. The portrayal of Afghanistan that resulted from his latest endeavor is illuminating and honest. He was unsparing about the deception and cruelty he witnessed (I recall in particular the vignette about local children throwing stones at a dog for fun), but also about the warmth and fellowship he encountered.

So when Stewart raises a yellow flag about our escalating commitment to Afghanistan, we should take notice.

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