A mature nations acknowledges its shortcomings.Quite simple really. Butyou seems to have difficulty grasping it.
A "show" of strength differs from real strength. Again, elementary.
A strong nation can admit mistakes because it knows it is still the strongest. You don't make yourself weaker by acknowledging flaws, you set an
example. Human knowledge 101.
In particular, he is showing how he is different to one of the most hated Presidents in modern history.The days of talking self-righteously about America while refusing to consider other viewpoints are over.
To those folks I ask a few simple questions. Why isn't German Chancellor Angela Merkel apologizing for Hitler? When will Nicholas Sarkozy apologize for Napolean? When will the world receive and apology from Gordon Brown for King George? How about Putin? When will he apologize for Stalin? If you want something more recent, how about this? Both Merkel and Sarkozy ran on against the policies of their predecessors, foreign policy and domestic. When will they apologize on a world stage for the years under Chirac and Shroeder?
If it is a sign of a "mature nation" to recognize both faults and accomplishments on the world stage, why do supporters of Obama only demand that our president show such "maturity"?
The answer to this question lies at the heart of the fallacy of their argument. I believe in their view if Obama demanded of his counter parts that which he deems necessary from himself, he would be portrayed as exactly the arrogant bully that he is trying to avoid. The only way for Obama to bring the world together is for him and him alone to show humility while giving everyone else a free pass on their own country's past misdeeds.
Think about that for a minute. The president is going on a tour of the world and pointing out each and every wrong that his country has ever done. Yet, the rest of the world gets a pass from doing the same, even though they all have just as much to apologize for, if not more. He's doing this because he believes only such humility will allow for an environment of mutual understanding so that we can work in a productive manner on the world stage.
In other words, Obama holds himself to standards he wouldn't hold others to because that's the only way he thinks the rest of the world can rally around him. In other words, the only way that President Obama thinks he can rally the world around his geopolitical goals is to inherently make the United States look weaker than the rest of the world. Keep in mind he has been flying around the world pointing each of our mistakes while nearly totally disregarding the mistakes the rest of the world has made.
That's a peculiar and rather ironic point of view. We are the world's only super power. Our leader thinks that the only way for the world to come together is for that super power to inherently be weakened first on the world stage. Maybe it will work, but I've never heard of a plan in which you weaken yourself first in order to get others to work with you.
2 comments:
We've seen this tactic before, actually. There are plenty of instances where a major public figure has agreed to accept "full responsibility" knowing that there are no real consequences for doing so.
Hi. I'm a Romanian and I've been to Dresden, Germany, when Obama talked about the U.S. WW2 mistakes.
You are wrong to say that he "gave a free pass to other countries past misdeeds". Actually, he said a lot of things about the nazi crimes and how both the U.S. and Germany have a guilt (about U.S. guilt: particularly in Dresden, the Allies made some big mistakes).
Also, it is wrong to say that other leaders don't apologize for the ones before them. Again, I give as example Germany, where Angela Merkel asked for forgiveness to all the other countries, especially to Israel for what happened in WW2. Also she managed to change the German Constitution and political structure so that it will be extremely hard in the future for one man to concentrate all power into his hands as Hitler did.
Maybe this is a form of publicity. Maybe it's true regret. Maybe it's form of respect for the other countries.
I believe that it is a fair thing to do. No one is going to take the blame for what Hitler did and he's dead. Apologies, support and that promise that "it won't happen again" is a fair thing to do by a better successor; also, it looks good in the newspaper.
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