No more apologies – Part I

Once again, the United States drops to its knees, this time apologizing to the terrorist leader of Libya, Moammar Gadhafi. Remember him? He was behind the 1986 bombing of a West Berlin nightclub and was responsible for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland.

This latest apology arose from a July 2008 Swiss arrest of Gadhafi’s son for assaulting two members of his staff, the charges later dropped when the staff members mysteriously withdrew their complaints. Following typical Gadhafi tirades, the Swiss inappropriately apologized. Obviously not enough tribute, Gadhafi still declared a jihad against Switzerland.

Asked about the jihad, Philip Cowley, a U.S. State Department spokesman said, “Lots of words and lots of papers flying all over the place and not necessarily a lot of sense;” likening Gadhafi’s latest temper tantrum with his bizarre and irrational behavior when he addressed the United Nations.

Shortly after this statement, the Libyan government contacted several large American firms doing business in Libya, suggesting “the negative repercussions which such remarks could have on economic relations between the two countries.”

Wait a minute. A terrorist thug threatens us and we apologize? Shouldn’t we jog his memory of what will happen if he harms Americans? What is the best way to handle a murdering terrorist who borders on insanity – apologizing or reminding him of what we did when we learned he was responsible for Flight 103? Our response then was to bomb Libyan locations where he was known to hide.

Instead, never seeming to miss an opportunity to apologize for America, the Obama administration ordered Cowley to apologize for his remarks. Maybe what we need is fewer apologies and more American pride. Is it possible to get any lower than apologizing to Gadhafi?

I thought not, but was wrong. The USA Today recently reported that although American aid to Haiti “dwarfs” the rest of the world’s, the United States, unlike other countries, cannot fly its flag because the Obama administration fears giving the wrong impression.

What wrong impression? If our flag gives the wrong impression and we are ashamed to fly it, perhaps we should not be in Haiti spending taxpayer money or perhaps we need leadership that is not ashamed of its country.

Apologizing to the world is now an American routine, the president seeming to be a serial apologizer. He told Europe “America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.”

At the Summit of the Americas he said, “We have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms.” At the G-20 Summit, he said we should “forge partnerships as opposed to simply dictating solutions.”

In a Washington, D.C. speech, the president apologized for the previous administration saying it “made decisions based on fear rather than foresight, that all too often our government trimmed the facts and evidence to fit ideological predispositions.”

Speaking to France, who refused to offer support in Iraq, or anywhere else for that matter, he apologized for Guantanamo, saying America lost itself and sacrificed its values. He also offered an apology to Turkey saying, “America is still working through some of our own darker periods in our history.”

He offered yet another apology for Guantanamo, saying, “Guantanamo set back the moral authority that is America’s strongest currency in the world.”

Why are we constantly apologizing? Find a natural disaster where the United States did not take the lead and provide the most aid. Find a country the United States did not help rebuild after World War II.

Find another country willing to spend its taxpayers’ money to provide military protection for the free world and willing to sacrifice the lives of its own men and women to offer that protection.

Find immigrants in the United States who, after living here for a time, want to return to their country of origin.

Mr. President, you have the privilege of being the president of the greatest nation in the history of the world. Please, no more apologies.

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