Love means never having to say you’re sorry? Not for the Obama administration. According to the Obama administration, love means always saying you’re sorry -especially if it’s to foreign governments that hate America. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has offered the Pakistani government an apology for last November’s incident where U.S.-led forces accidentally killed two dozen Pakistani troops at the Afghanistan border.
“We are sorry for the losses suffered by the Pakistani military. We are committed to working closely with Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent this from ever happening again,” Clinton said in a statement.
Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S., said Pakistan was pleased:
“We appreciate Secretary Clinton’s statement, and hope that bilateral ties can move to a better place from here. I am confident that both countries can agree on many critical issues, especially on bringing peace to the region.”
The refusal to apologize back in November was the cause of strained relations with the Pakistani government, which then closed the U.S. and NATO supply routes to Afghanistan. The result was that the U.S. had to find alternate, more expensive routes.
The debate over whether to apologize paralyzed the Obama Administration for months.
Some officials at the Pentagon said both U.S. and Pakistani military forces had erred in the incident. In addition, many opponents of an apology pointed out that the Pakistani government wasn’t to be trusted. One senior Administration official said:
“How can you apologize to a country that is providing through some parts of its government tacit support to the Haqqani network, which is actively attacking our guys? This isn’t about politics. This is about the message that would send to our troops and that’s what no one in the military or the White House could countenance.”
When it comes right down to it, was there ever any real doubt? Given the choice between humiliating our troops and currying favor with anti-American Islamic governments, anyone could have predicted an apology was coming.