America should offer heartfelt apology to the world for the error of its ways

America should offer heartfelt apology to the world for the error of its ways

Grace Hopper, a Navy rear admiral who was a trailblazing figure in the computer science field, was widely credited with popularizing the saying, “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission.”

However you view the merits of Hopper’s reasoning, the ultimate outcome of her decision to forge ahead without securing the required go-ahead was the need to issue an apology for breaching proper protocol.

Apologizing, of course, is an art form, which when done sincerely reflects a delicate balance of humility, empathy, and accountability. It can have the power to mend fractured relationships, restore trust, and foster deeper connections.

Which is why America – as a people and a nation – needs to offer a full-throated apology to the world for the actions and conduct of our president over the past year, a period in which he has trampled on the Constitution, taken a wrecking ball to global alliances, and served as the ringleader of an unprecedented assault upon the institutional norms of democratic governance.

His abuse of executive authority, regrettably, began on the first day of his return to the Oval Office on January 20, 2025. Within minutes, he, in his own inimitable way, began demonstrating that there is a “new sheriff in town,” the kind who covets the land and resources of other countries and has a wanton disregard for the most fundamental standards of human decency.

By contrast, before he took office nearly 15 months ago, America stood tall in the eyes of our allies around the world. We were a shining economic and military power that took pride in its image as a nation of immigrants who sought hope here in pursuit of their natural rights to life, liberty, and happiness.

We were a country with a history of using the tools of restoration and rehabilitation instead of punitive reparations after World War II, employing the Marshall Plan and other programs to rebuild Germany and Japan into democratic, capitalist allies.

Now, under the policies of the current presidential administration, we have gone from an ally to an outcast; a country bent on flexing its muscles at every turn, whatever the human cost.

We were once that “shining city upon a hill,” a phrase with biblical origins that President Ronald Reagan used so eloquently in his farewell address to the nation in 1989 after serving eight years as our commander in chief.

“In my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity,” President Reagan said in his riveting speech from the White House. “And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.”

He then, more than 36 years ago, addressed the fracture that plagued our nation at the time: “We were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions. If you didn’t get these things from your family, you got them from the neighborhood . . . Or you could get a sense of patriotism from school. And if all else failed, you could get a sense of patriotism from the popular culture.”

In closing, President Reagan charged everyone with doing “a better job of getting across that America is freedom – freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It’s fragile; it needs protection.”

Now, try to imagine hearing such sentiments from our current president, a man who has made a cringe-worthy habit of hurling disparaging and childish remarks at his critics, political opponents, or anyone who dares challenge him.

When the Supreme Court recently ruled against him in a precedent-setting tariff case, he lashed out at the justices who comprised the majority in the 6-3 decision, labeling them as “fools and lapdogs” and “radical left Democrats.”

When a female news reporter asked him about the Epstein files, he told her, “Quiet, piggy.” When a CNN anchor pressed him for an answer at a news briefing, he called her a “nasty, horrible witch.”

His toxic brand of leadership also has been evident in repeated remarks about fallen American soldiers who he has called “losers” and “suckers.” He also has attacked the memories of courageous POWs like the late Senator John McCain, who as a Navy pilot spent 5-1/2 years in North Vietnamese captivity during the Vietnam War, a military conflict that the future president avoided because of a medical deferment for “bone spurs.”

If all that isn’t enough evidence of how he has degraded the sacred obligations of the office he’s been entrusted with, then look at his imperial ambitions regarding Greenland, Canada, and Venezuela, three nations that are targets of his land grab dreams.

Equally concerning to our European allies are his aggressive tariff policies and statements that bring into question NATO security guarantees by the U.S. His “America First” approach has eroded trust among NATO members, many of whom now view the U.S. as an unreliable and sometimes adversarial partner rather than a trusted ally.

That outlook has been magnified by U.S. withdrawal from international organizations like the World Health Organization, the UN Human Rights Council, and the Paris Climate Agreement, in addition to his trashing of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives across the U.S.

Adding more fuel to the political fire, he has regularly insulted European and Canadian leaders, expressed admiration for Russian adversary Vladimir Putin, while also making threats to invade Mexico, Cuba, and Panama. The U.S. military stakes climbed even higher over the weekend when the administration launched a multi-pronged attack against Iran, killing the country’s supreme leader and sparking retaliatory strikes that in a matter of days has engulfed the entire Mideast in a conflict that figures to last weeks if not months.

For all that, and the internal culture war he has taken delight in creating, we now owe our longstanding friends and allies a wholehearted apology for what he has done. With profound remorse, we ask your forgiveness for allowing our country to elect and enable a president whose autocratic ambitions imperil the basic American concept of “liberty and justice for all.”

Best regards,
Jack Buchanan, President