The Heritage Foundation published a list of President Barack Obama’s top 10 apologies. Be sure to read it: it’s fascinating to see all the things he has apologized for in his first few months in office. Reading the list gives you the impression that America has a whole lot of soul searching to do.
10. Apology for Guantanamo in Washington: “There is also no question that Guantanamo set back the moral authority that is America’s strongest currency in the world. … Rather than keeping us safer, the prison at Guantanamo has weakened American national security. It is a rallying cry for our enemies.”
9. Apology for the Mistakes of the CIA: “So don’t be discouraged by what’s happened in the last few weeks. Don’t be discouraged that we have to acknowledge potentially we’ve made some mistakes.”
8. Apology for U.S. Policy toward the Americas: “Too often, the United States has not pursued and sustained engagement with our neighbors. We have been too easily distracted by other priorities, and have failed to see that our own progress is tied directly to progress throughout the Americas.”
5. Apology for the War on Terror: “Unfortunately, faced with an uncertain threat, our government made a series of hasty decisions. … In other words, we went off course.”
And on and on it goes. My personal favorite:
3. Apology to the Summit of the Americas: “While the United States has done much to promote peace and prosperity in the hemisphere, we have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms. … So I’m here to launch a new chapter of engagement that will be sustained throughout my administration. The United States will be willing to acknowledge past errors where those errors have been made.”
Of course George W. Bush made some mistakes during his eight years in office. What president did not? But Bill Clinton did the same. He waited too long before acting in the Balkans, and he did nothing against the genocide taking place in Rwanda, for instance. But did his successor travel around the world to offer his apologies for what he did?
No, he did not. And for good reason. If every nation in the world starts apologizing for every single possible mistake it has ever made, we’ll never stop. More importantly, perhaps, Obama is apologizing for policies deemed a-OK by a great many people. Lastly, although he think he is restoring America’s “morality authority” in the world, he only succeeds in emboldening its enemies who believe its leader to be extremely weak.
It is great Obama wants to reach out to the rest of the world, and to improve America’s relationship with it. But there is no need to beg for forgiveness and to pretend that America is the worst country on earth.
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