Overheard while drinking in Quito

from an American we met named Richard:

¨so I´m watching the State of the Union with a bunch of Germans and they start giving me shit about our country and our role in Iraq. I told them there is a big difference between the leadership of a country and the people. We´re good people. We have families. But what I was thinking and what I really wanted to say was, ¨wait a minute, what about the Holocaust man? What the f--- was that?¨


But the anti-American sentiments of course linger. Having started traveling only since the summer of 2003, right after the Iraq war started, I´ve never heard firsthand what people think of the US when we´re not at war with Iraq...