The Apology Tour

President Obama's recent "apology tour" has highlighted the guilt many Americans feel for power we wield in the world. Of course, it's a bit more nuanced than Obama or his conservative critics would have us believe.

Alongside the botched military campaigns, misspent aid, and other assorted acts of hubris, our soldiers have disproportionally bled on foreign soil for others' freedoms--even when our own have not been threatened. American citizens have given billions--perhaps even trillions--of dollars in foreign aid through voluntary charity and tax dollars. Thousands of Americans have given up comfortable suburban life to serve in non-military roles in troubled parts of the world as Peace Corps members, missionaries and other NGO workers.

Interestingly, the complex and often contradictory aspects of America's relationship with the rest of the world were not adequately reflected in our president's legitimate acknowledgment of our faults. And it was particularly telling when he made these remarks in the presence of dictators and autocrats who themselves have such a low view of freedom and human life.

My recent reading (Tony Horwitz's A Voyage Long and Strange and Jon Meacham's American Lion, among others) has helped me see that, if anything, the injustices of America have been inside--not outside--our borders. Historically, our relationship to other nations has been uncharacteristically benevolent for a country of our size. (Contrast the colonial aspirations of France, Spain, Italy, Germany and the UK as they were at their apex.)

What is unconscionable is our treatment of native peoples and black slaves, and--dare I say--millions of unborn children. These qualify as systematic acts of injustice and genocide that cause recent international incidents to pale in comparison. Their impact and consequences are still being felt by the victims and the descendants of the perpetrators.