What do you know? President Obama has finally found a country to which he won’t apologize.
(Yet, anyway.)
The State Department has reportedly been pushing Obama to issue a formal mea culpa to Pakistan for the NATO bombing last month that claimed the lives of two dozen members of that country’s military.
Apparently, the president told Foggy Bottom pointy heads to take a hike.
Wow.
That certainly would be a full 180 on the approach he took to international relations upon assuming office. You remember, back when he launched his global apology tour, blaming America for, well, pretty much everything wrong in the world.
It was all part of a Kumbaya foreign policy, in which he seemed to believe that national prostration on the world stage would get countries to admire America more.
He called the Bush-led War on Terror “a series of hasty decisions.” In his Cairo speech, he apologized to Muslims and even stretched back to 1953 to express contrition for the CIA’s role in a coup in Iran that year.
And who can forget how he literally bowed before Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah and Japan’s Emperor Akihito?
The strategy backfired big-time; rather than admire America, the world saw this country as weak. And acted accordingly.
So now Obama’s reversed course — and won’t utter an “Our bad!” to Pakistan?
That sure would be a welcome first step — late in his presidential term though it is.
A caveat: The Pentagon is still probing the incident.
So Obama may yet beg for Pakistan’s forgiveness.
For now, though, give the prez credit.
His apparent sudden show of backbone is a gesture we’re not, uh, sorry to see.