Ok folks, let's do something different. I've made a challenge grant, from my personal funds, of $1000 to send Josh to Afghanistan. Firstly, it's about positive karma. You supported me on my trip to the Silk Road and now I am passing on that support.

But most importantly of all, as we all know, Afghanistan is now even more important than Iraq. Casualties continue to rise and neglect from Washington continues apace. It's urgent to get good on the ground reporting.

He needs to raise about another $3000 to make the trip worthwhile. He'll be blogging a good portion of his journey here at The Agonist, exclusively, and of course a good portion of it at Registan. So, let's help out and get him to Afghanistan. Judging by traffic here at the site, I imagine we have 300-400 regular readers and a couple thousand occasional lurkers. If the regulars will pitch in just $10 we can get this done. $10 is only two trips to Starbucks--or donuts from Kracky Kreme or elsewhere. Affordable, doable and imagine how cool it would be to have our own reporter in Afghanistan?

His reporting on the region has been absolutely peerless. He's a no nonsense, no conventional-wisdom buying kool-aid sipper. And I wouldn't put my hard earned cash on the line if I didn't think he would do anything but a superlative job. So, click on the icon, it's going to be around for a while. The key about the donations are this: if we don't meet the target you aren't obliged to pay a thing. It's not like a PayPal donation that just disappears. Pitch in folks, let's make this happen!

Update: An update from Josh: Another friend-of-Registan.net, who wishes to remain anonymous, has pledged an additional $1000 to the cause of sending me to Afghanistan. In addition, I see in the last 12 hours several people have contributed significant sums of money as well. Which means I really only require about $1200 more to make this happen. I am, in a word, stunned by your generosity. Thank you! And keep on spreading the word!

Let's make this happen people. Just $10 dollars from 120 people will get this done.