- Sep 12, 2008
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Another perspective on the Apologies of Barack Obama over the years and how it relates to the events this week.....
Victor Davis Hanson
Essentially he argues that if you apologies all the time for everything, apologies become valueless. An apology only counts if you are going to do changes in the future. Just tossing off lip service any time anything happens does not lesson the offense, but ads insult to the injury. If indeed there is an injury. Apologizing if there is an injury or not makes you appear both weak and flippant and rude.
As usual, a very good article.
Victor Davis Hanson
One rare apology might in theory make things safer for Americans; lots of them in fact make things more dangerous for our troops. In general, if you apologize gratuitously when there is no need, remorse loses its currency in the rare cases when it might be necessary. All this saying we are sorry has also energized our enemies as much as it has depressed the public at home. Heres why.
The rioting and killing over the burned Korans are not just over issues of religious desecration. Of course, ostensibly in sensitive hearts-and-minds counter-insurgency operations in a Muslim nation, soldiers must be more careful. In addition to protecting themselves, killing the enemy, and rebuilding communities, they must worry about issues that not only have not arisen in most other theaters (e.g., Korea, Vietnam, Haiti, Panama, Grenada, etc.), but have not arisen at other eras in which Americans worked with Muslims (I doubt that George Pattons Seventh Army in Tunisia worried too much about the contents of their burn dumps;
Essentially he argues that if you apologies all the time for everything, apologies become valueless. An apology only counts if you are going to do changes in the future. Just tossing off lip service any time anything happens does not lesson the offense, but ads insult to the injury. If indeed there is an injury. Apologizing if there is an injury or not makes you appear both weak and flippant and rude.
As usual, a very good article.