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At any rate it is moral....and we go by our morals not theirs, and our morals say apologies are a good thing. The Iraqis are our hosts. We are in their house, so an apology is required.
Fuzzy thinking. They believe our morals are decadent and a source of weakness so how does applying our morals in their country help us?
That's not what I said. I said our morals demand we apologize and we have to obey our morals. Whether the Iraqis understand our morals or not, we have to remain true to what America is all about.
That's not what I said. I said our morals demand we apologize and we have to obey our morals. Whether the Iraqis understand our morals or not, we have to remain true to what America is all about.
Our morals demand a corporate apology? I respectfully disagree. A personal apology from the offender is in order, but not a corporate apology from the military. I am in the military and feel no need to tender an apology for the actions of an individual. And that is what happened, the actions of an individual. I don't support his actions, but I dont feel responsible for them either. He deserves our condemnation for being stupid at the least, but neither you nor I share in his responsibility for his stupidity, that is what was tendered by an official apology.It makes about as much sense as me apologizing for my Great,great-grandfather being a slave-owner. I did not own slaves, so why would I apologize? As you can no doubt guess, I opposed Clinton's slavery apology too.
The military is an extension of the diplomatic arm of the U.S. via the President (and his civilian Secretary of War). A civilian controlled military is morally bound to corporate apologies as its part of statecraft. The military cannot make foreign policy, the State Department does, and the State Department takes the lead in instances like these. The military should not make decisions on cultural issues…its job is to destroy what it's ordered to destroy.
I think I am going to have to respectfully disagree with all those who think an apology is a good idea. I just cannot see how it helps us but can see how it harms us. A corporate apology tars the entire US establishment where an individual apology from the soldier doesnt. That is exactly how the Iraqis look at it too. I do not know how many times I personally was accused of torturing Iraqis in 2004 by other Iraqis. When I disputed this and voiced my disgust with the the activities at Abu Ghraib, they pointed to the apology from the government as proof of my guilt. There point was that if we all (American Soldiers) werent doing it, then why did the government apologize? That is the root of my opposition to this decision.Did you see where the President apologized yesterday? We are now stuck in the news cycle and this issue that at heart is small has become huge. Making a mountain out of a molehill in action.
