We have no need to offer apologies

I’m getting a little tired of all the Americans who are ashamed of their own country. Sadly, this seems to be the case with more and more of our citizens, including our president, who seems to feel the need to apologize for us all over the world. I’ve read a couple of recent letters to the editor that speak of such things as the “prejudice” and “arrogance” of the Founders and our “acts of clear aggression” in Afghanistan and Iraq and I can no longer remain silent.

Our country is the greatest country on Earth. It has provided millions with the greatest opportunity for personal freedom and economic advancement that they could have possibly achieved. Yes, our country has definitely made mistakes, most obviously in the cases of slavery and our relations with the Native Americans, but we have been working continually to improve ourselves as the years have gone by.

The majority of our founders were men of integrity and character and, though they weren’t perfect, they laid the foundations for the free society we have today, a truly remarkable system rooted in individual rights and limited government. The ungrateful people who speak against our country today are able to do so because of these men. The irony of this fact is rich.

The people of Afghanistan and Iraq are freer today than they have ever been and it is blindness to identify the results of our operations there as a “catastrophic human rights disaster.” No, the human rights disasters were taking place in those countries before we went there. Afghans and Iraqis should be grateful and Americans should be proud.

Peter Scougale

Everett

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