Emory Magazine has just published an essay I wrote about living in Ecuador during the war in Iraq. Here’s an excerpt:
I arrived in Ecuador while the US government was preparing to invade Iraq, and I’ve been here throughout the subsequent war and the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Witnessing these events from a foreign country has given me a unique perspective on how Ecuadorians view Americans — and our government.
Many people I meet here are fond of Americans but dislike our nation’s foreign policy. But like many other people around the world, most Ecuadorians recognize that Americans are individuals, and that we don’t always agree with our government’s policies. In the case of our war with Iraq, many Ecuadorians saw America’s military actions as characteristically bullying: the world’s strongest country flexing its muscles. The US’s conflict with Iraq angered many Ecuadorians because it was a war, I’ve heard them say, that didn’t need to happen — it was a war of choice.