by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n
A<\/span>mericans have lost the art of saying “I am sorry.”<\/p>\n Take outgoing Harvard President Larry Summers, who in the past year has apologized repeatedly. His crime? Saying that institutionalized bias might not completely explain the dearth of female scientists and mathematicians on university faculties.<\/p>\n Despite trying to placate campus feminist groups by pledging $50 million “to bring about a set of very important cultural changes,” he still lost his job. But now after his resignation, I wonder whether Summers will offer yet another apology to his critics. And if not, why not?<\/p>\n Former President Bill Clinton fine-tuned the art of today’s approach to public remorse. His apologies \u2014 to Guatemalans, Iranians, Okinawans, Rwandans and dozens of others \u2014 were often cosmic in nature; they offered contrition for almost everything America has done or not done, from slavery and the ill treatment of American Indians to the rampages of Gen. Sherman.<\/p>\n Recently in Saudi Arabia, former Vice President Al Gore offered regrets of sorts for the “terrible abuses” of Arabs in the United States. He narrated to nodding sheiks how their brethren in the U.S. had been “indiscriminately rounded up” and “held in conditions that were just unforgivable.”<\/p>\n His Saudi hosts, who have a lamentable record on human rights, heard not a word from the humanitarian Gore about the excesses of their own\u00a0sharia<\/i>\u00a0law. There was no mention that 15 Saudis, imbued with Wahhabi extremism, had blown up the World Trade Center and a portion of the Pentagon.<\/p>\n Former President Jimmy Carter lately has become another international scold. While not offering so many literal apologies, he has made it clear to the world that he regrets deeply the transgressions of other Americans \u2014 whether for wiretaps or setting up detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay. He rarely mentions the Iranian hostage crisis, double-digit inflation and interest rates, Soviet expansionism, or any of the other lapses on his own watch.<\/p>\n W<\/span>ith all this public contrition, we risk debasing the once-noble protocols of apology.<\/p>\n First, there is no reason to apologize repeatedly \u2014 especially when one has done nothing wrong. Campuses exist for the free exchange of ideas. So what was so terrible with President Summers opening up debate about why one gender excels or does not in a particular discipline? Summers’ serial apologies came off not as contrite, but as obsequious \u2014 as desperation to keep his job and mollify bullying critics.<\/p>\n Second, don’t apologize for the sins of others long past. Clinton in a few words can hardly himself atone for centuries of the tragedy that was slavery. He’d be better off apologizing for things he could have controlled \u2014 such as forbidding vulnerable American forces in Somalia to use tanks or ordering missile strikes against a probable pharmaceutical factory in Sudan.<\/p>\n Third, money or personal enhancement should not factor into public acts of contrition. Pat Robertson said he was sorry for claiming Ariel Sharon’s stroke was divine retribution for the Israeli pullouts from Gaza \u2014 but only after furious Israel officials threatened the reverend’s role in a $50 million Christian tourist center in Israel.<\/p>\n Fourth, it is a bad idea to apologize for one’s country while overseas. In today’s globally connected media, there is really no need \u2014 unless apologizers wish to ingratiate themselves with hosts or find easy resonance with anti-American foreigners.<\/p>\n So if Clinton really wished to apologize for America’s past support for the Shah of Iran, he could just as easily have done so at a veterans’ convention in Memphis or Salt Lake City. But when proclaimed at the World Economic Forum in chic Davos, Switzerland, Clinton’s regret seemed cost-free and aimed at wining applause at the expense of his countrymen back home. And like Gore’s one-sided confessional, Clinton’s remorse did not mention that the Islamic fascism that followed the Shah was at least as odious \u2014 and wholly indigenous.<\/p>\n Fifth, war is the wrong time to start apologizing. Gen. George Marshall did not tell the Germans in 1943 that we were sorry for previously harassing German Americans in 1917. Nor during the Cuban missile crisis did President Kennedy offer Nikita Khrushchev remorse that we tried to subvert the Russian revolution in 1918-20. There is a proper occasion for voicing collective regret, and wartime is not it.<\/p>\n In the old days, apologies \u2014 said once, without an agenda and involving one’s own sins \u2014 revealed character. Now too often they reflect just the opposite.<\/p>\n \u00a92006 Tribune Media Services<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The apology used to show character. by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Americans have lost the art of saying “I am sorry.” Take outgoing Harvard President Larry Summers, who in the past year has apologized repeatedly. His crime? Saying that institutionalized bias might not completely explain the dearth of female scientists and mathematicians on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[776],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-13l","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9202,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-apology-tour-of-our-next-president\/","url_meta":{"origin":4051,"position":0},"title":"The Apology Tour of Our Next President","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Works and Days by PJ Media In Havana recently, President Obama talked of the similarities between Cuba and the United States, as if a constitutional republic of some 240 years and a thuggish and murderous communist dictatorship were kindred souls. In Argentina, Obama both tangoed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Middle East"","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/obama_surrenders_mobile_4-5-15-1.sized-770x415xt.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3525,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-university-madhouse\/","url_meta":{"origin":4051,"position":1},"title":"The University Madhouse","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Have American academics lost their collective minds? This week, Columbia University allowed Iran's loony President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be a lecturer on its campus. In the circus that followed, Ahmadinejad weighed in on everything from Israel to homosexuals, and came off, as expected,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "October 2007"","block_context":{"text":"October 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/october-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5396,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ideology-trumps-truth-on-campus\/","url_meta":{"origin":4051,"position":2},"title":"Ideology Trumps Truth on Campus","author":"victorhanson","date":"November 25, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"The doors are open for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, but closed for Larry Summers by Bruce S. Thornton City Journal Many observers noted that Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad\u2019s recent visit to Columbia University took place at about the same time that the University of California at Davis canceled a speaking appearance by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Bruce S. Thornton"","block_context":{"text":"Bruce S. Thornton","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/bruce-s-thornton\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4259,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ivory-cower\/","url_meta":{"origin":4051,"position":3},"title":"Ivory Cower","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 28, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"University presidents have lost their dignity. by Victor Davis Hanson Claremont Review of Books Whether or not you agreed with them, university presidents used to be dignified figures on the American scene. They often were distinguished scholars, capable of bringing their own brand of independent thinking to bear on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "September 2005"","block_context":{"text":"September 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/september-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4359,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/profiles-in-diversity\/","url_meta":{"origin":4051,"position":4},"title":"Profiles in Diversity","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson The Claremont Institute Whether or not you agreed with them, university presidents used to be dignified figures on the American scene. They often were distinguished scholars, capable of bringing their own brand of independent thinking to bear on the operation and reform of their institutions. Above\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "June 2005"","block_context":{"text":"June 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/june-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2690,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-muslim-world-address\/","url_meta":{"origin":4051,"position":5},"title":"The Muslim World Address","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 3, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner President Obama has a much-publicized upcoming talk in Cairo that is rather pretentiously packaged as an address to the \u201cMuslim world.\u201d It is likely that, unlike the Bush speeches about the shared innate desire for freedom, and hope that the Arab autocracies would liberalize,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "June 2009"","block_context":{"text":"June 2009","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2009\/june-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4051"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4051"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4052,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4051\/revisions\/4052"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}