For US government, bad excuse is better than none

The US administration appears to have taken to heart the rather dubious maxim that it is a good thing in life never to apologize, seemingly having decided that the sounder advice that one should never say or do anything one needs to say sorry for is somehow un-American and therefore not to its liking.

But to conclude from this that it has a clear conscience would be to do it an injustice; not least, because that would imply it has one. Instead, what it has for whatever it does is something much better－justifications.

Washington is never short of a reason for doing something. Nor is it one to be daunted by the challenge of coming up with one. No matter how egregious its behavior or how implausible the excuse, or how bad the light it puts itself in trying to make something so porous hold water, it will argue all day and every day that it can do no wrong, no matter what the evidence might be to the contrary.

In this endeavor, despite it oftentimes being up to its neck in water, there is never any faltering. For the US administration is quite happy to keep carrying water in a sieve, as it has learned from experience that the known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns will, at some point in their accumulation, be enough to support its claim that it is the injured party. At least to the extent that others will pat it on the back and be willing to play along with it.

But this is the great peril of our times, for although circumstances have changed, the mindset of Washington has not. It has rightly been said that fascination of hunting as a sport depends almost wholly on which end of the gun you are, and the same might be said of Washington's approach to problem-solving and its scattergun effects. For the tacit vindication for all its actions, even the fabrications of casus belli, is its conviction that might makes right.

Unfortunately this conviction is not accompanied by prescience. The US administration, like most people, cannot look at the seeds of time and say which grain will grow, and which will not. So, more often than not, it ends up adding insult to injury and injury to insult.

While it is undoubtedly more appealing to become wiser from the misfortunes of others rather than one's own, that is no excuse for the tribulations the US administration so casually inflicts upon others.

It is to be hoped that sooner rather than later the US administration will mend its ways, and show at the least some civility to those with whom it does not see eye to eye. It should heed the caution that of all the sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest of all are: It might have been. What's true of romances, also holds true for friendships, as well as the amicable relations between countries.

The author is a senior editor with China Daily.