"I never feel so reflexively patriotic ..."

I never feel so reflexively patriotic as when I hear my nation disparaged abroad. Perhaps that is because, when traveling in the Third World, I am constantly associated with every good and bad action of the American government. Punjabis have berated me for giving military aid to Pakistan, Burmese have thanked me for saving them from the Japanese army, and in the Sudan I was nearly turned back at the border for failing to justify my secretary of state's Middle East policy.

Jonah Blank, Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God