"So Many Enemies, So Little Time"

Subtitled "An American Woman in All the Wrong Places", this book was written by a journalist and former history professor who began a year teaching journalism as a Fulbright professor in Kyrgyzstan just before 9/11. During that year, she visited several of the "Stan" countries that used to be part of the USSR as well as Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. She returned home through Russia, Mongolia, China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Myanmar.

It's a fascinating description of encounters with "ordinary citizens" of countries that are supposed to hate us, and the predominance of slanted and incomplete information on both sides. It is full of contradictions: those who wonder why Americans interfere in other countries, but want the US to solve their problems and help restore their economy. The Americans who go to other countries determined to "respect indigenous traditions", but are horrified at some of the specifics of those traditions. The Muslims who can't believe their American visitor would refuse to join them in drinking vodka.

I can't imagine taking some of the excursions that Elinor Burkett took, but I'm very grateful that she wrote about them.