Duncan Hunter: "I will never apologize for the United States of America."

[Silent3]

A brief moment from the last Republican debate, which didn't get a lot of attention:

Cooper: Thirty seconds, Congressman Hunter. The question is, how do you repair the image of America in the Muslim world?

Hunter: Cooper, Cooper, very simply, to the critics of America I would say this. When you were faced with disease and starvation, the Americans brought food and medicine. When you had earthquakes and tsunamis and floods, the Americans came and helped you. And when you were threatened from outside, the Americans left the safety of their own homes to come and defend you.

I will never apologize for the United States of America.

(Applause)

This really bothered me. Especially the applause, which was loud and full of enthusiasm. My first thought was what a bunch of f*cking yahoos!

I deplore this kind of jingoism, but I get the impression that it's very strong in the Republican base.

Certainly the United States has done a lot of great things, but it's done its share of bad things too, many of them while George W. Bush has been at the helm. There is no quantity of good deeds that ever removes the need to be contrite about bad deeds.

Even if you believe the war in Iraq was justified, and even if you think the Iraqis are better off with the mess in their country now than they were under Saddam, the death and destruction in Iraq due to sheer incompetence and horrible planning is definitely worthy of an apology.

For abandoning so much of Afghanistan to go into Iraq, and letting that country fall back into the control of the Taliban and assorted warlords, is definitely worthy of an apology.

Our slow response to global warming and other environmental hazards, when we're the number one producer of greenhouse gases and many other pollutants, is definitely worthy of an apology.

Losing our way in being a model for freedom and democracy, becoming a country known for torture, absurd word games about what is and isn't torture, a country known for indefinite detention without recourse based on nothing but the unchecked decree "enemy combatant" by a "unitary executive", is definitely worthy of an apology.

No amount of chest-thumping blind patriotism changes the fact that the United States has plenty of reason to say, "We're sorry."

[Burma Jones]

1. What a Yo Yo

[Mythsaje]

2. America is like any nation, or any person...

We've done things of which we can be proud, and done things of which we should be ashamed. To ignore one and highlight the other is either boundless hypocrisy or sheer stupidity.

[Silent3]

5. Apparently it's not "sheer stupidity"...

...if your goal is to excite a bunch of Republican voters. In that case, sadly, being adamantly unapologetic for absolutely anything the United States has done or might ever do is good strategy.

[Mythsaje]

9. That's just because die-hard Republicans are hypocritical gasbags. n/t

[Drunken Irishman]

3. Why?

Every national has its flaws, Duncan. If you're blind to those flaws, how can you work to better this country? Duncan, I'm not ashamed to be an American, but I also realize that sometimes our country screws up and if those mistakes warrant an apology, you know, like starting an unjust war, I have no problem apologizing for it. Why do I apology? Because I know we can do better.

[Buzz Clik]

4. Let's just hope that America never has to apologize for Duncan Hunter.

[themaguffin]

6. It's a twofer. He get's jingtastic & AVOIDS the question

[unpossibles]

7. hell, they can't even make the trains run on time....

does that mean the Bushies aren't even good at being fascists?

[CJCRANE]

8. I'm sure that's a Poppy Bush quote.

What Poppy meant was "I'll never apologize for anything my f***ed up family does". Hunter probably meant "I'll never apologize for Republican policies"...because if you ask them if they regret anything done by America under the Clinton administration, I'm sure you'll get a very different answer.

[Bitwit1234]

10. No- what he should do is apologize TO THE UNITED STATES

OF AMERICA...for what the republicans have done to it.