Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Is anyone else saddened?

When I went to Turkey in September 2001 we were welcomed by everyone we met. We traveled a large portion of the Country from Kussadasi to Ankara to Cappadoccia to Istanbul and received much the same response from people. I read in the Wall Street Journal recently that the US is now third from the top on the most disliked country according to Turkish people. Germany and Palestine are the only ones liked less than us.

From what I read this falling from grace is the same around the world. Maybe I am naive about our standing in 2001 but we traveled the world and found ourselves respected as Americans for the most part. Of course there were plenty of outspoken Westerners who put us in our place, as if we had a direct line to the Prez and helped form the foreign policy of the US. Anyway the point is that now traveling around the world as an American you have a much larger target on your back.

Muslim Jihadists are blowing up tourist destinations in Turkey, Thailand, Gaza, Bali, India and probably a lot of places I don't know about. Not much else to say but I can't wait to go back to Nepal.

1 comment:

Levi said...

Sort of sucks to be american. You would think that 9/11 would get us simpathy. But we handled it wrong now all we get is a cold shoulder.