“It Would Be a Pity to be Killed, Of Course”

Rory Stewart, a pale, wispy 29-year-old Scotsman, might very well be the first tourist to return to Afghanistan. On Sunday, the Oxford-educated traveler set out on a 600-mile walk through the country, tracing a path once taken by Alexander the Great, Genghis Khan and Tamerlane. The only food in is backpack is a yellow container of emergency rations dropped over Afghanistan by American planes last fall. “Oh dear—why, of course I’m worried,” Stewart’s mother, back in Scotland, said in today’s Los Angeles Times.

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