‘Sorry’ seems to be the hardest word

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=/data/opinion/2012/March/opinion_March96.xml&section=opinion

Neil Berry (BRITAIN)

24 March 2012

An American serviceman in Afghanistan embarking on a homicidal rampage and evoking one of the grisliest episodes of the Vietnam War, no end to the bloodshed in Iraq. Even those who feared the worst when the US, the UK and their allies went into Afghanistan and Iraq must struggle to credit just how badly things have turned out.

Not surprisingly perhaps, in Britain, as in the US, there is more than a little resistance to facing up to the magnitude of the mess the West has made. It is true that commentators have spoken of the UK’s involvement in the Iraq war as the biggest foreign policy blunder since ‘Suez’, the spectacularly botched attempt in 1956 by Britain, France and Israel, to topple President Nasser of Egypt. Yet compared to Britain’s recent military debacles in Muslim lands, Suez pales into insignificance.

Mea culpa, ‘the blame is mine’, is a Latin locution expressing what has supposedly been a hallmark of Christian culture: the readiness to avow error. But far from apologising for their country’s misbegotten overseas escapades, British politicians robotically re-affirm their determination to ‘finish the job’ in Afghanistan.

[malthaussen]

1. To quote Lois McMaster Bujold:

"They will keep on fighting, in the attempt to cover their bleeding asses with the flag of victory."
(actually, a paraphrase)

-- Mal