Job 19:4 If indeed if I have erred, my error remains with me.
Mea culpa — Latin – “my fault”
Romans 14:12 So then each of us will give account of himself to God
One of the most striking verses in the Bible comes from the man, Job, who was deprived of family, friends, livelihood and health through no fault of his own. As recorded in Job 19:4, after being urged do admit sin by his friends and his wife, Job simply stated: If indeed if I have erred, my error remains with me.
This is remarkable because he had not done wrong which resulted in his poverty, privation and pain. But Job also realized that under God, he and he alone was responsible for his shortcomings.
Paul, the Apostle, echoed this in Romans 14:12 So then each of us will give account of himself to God. Those of us who believe in an eternal God know we cannot shift blame for what we have done wrong on anyone else, nor on circumstances not of our control.
What has this to do with the current state of our ship of state? It seems that those who campaigned and won office on proclaiming they were going to be transparent, that the mistakes of the past would not be repeated in the present and that when confronted they would own up to their misdeeds have not done what they promised.
When President * told the nation we were going to end the war in Afghanistan by September 11 (and changed that to August 31), no one thought that leaving that war-torn nation would be so bungled. Images of Afghanis who help us in the 20 years we had a military presence there were seen trying to get on airplanes out of Kabul, some hanging on the landing gear and then falling to their deaths in their panic to get out. Our embassy was emptied with the aid of helicopters that ferried them to the airport.
Somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 Americans were left to fend for themselves, and the administration admitted they had no plan to extricate them from reprisals from the Taliban, who had quickly overrun the country.
With months to prepare for the departure of our troops and other personnel from Afghanistan, the pullout was botched. Handing over the reins of government to a vicious group that does not respect human rights meant that the 2400+ servicemen and women died for nothing, for no guarantee has been given of civilized treatment of Afghan citizens. Already we are told of summary executions of those who helped the U. S.
Who was responsible? Our President was in Camp David on vacation when this happened, but it took days before he addressed the nation. And when he did, his speech was an attempt to place blame on everyone but himself and his ‘team’. Among those Biden blamed were Donald Trump (who had not been President since 20 January 2021), the Afghan military, the Afghan political class and even the Afghan citizens. There was not any sense that our President * felt he was to blame for what has been called a debacle, a defeat for America, a disaster unfolding. In fact, after he made his almost universally panned speech, he flew back to Camp David. Coming back to D. C. last Wednesday, he addressed the nation on — COVID, and the only hope for information on Afghanistan was some intrepid reporter who would ask a question about that sorry land. Of course, if the President was true to form, and took no questions.
Not taking responsibility for what has gone wrong has been a staple of American politics for some time. All, since Harry Truman in the late 1940s, give lip service to “The buck stops here” sign he had on his desk. Even with the effects of the atom bombs being seen years after they were dropped on Japan, Truman took responsibility for that decision. Others, not so much.
All I have room for those who did take the blame are three.
Dwight Eisenhower, on 6 June 1944, D-Day, wrote a long note, to be delivered in case he had to pull our troops off Normandy’s beaches. In it he said the failure was not of any of the military; he, and he alone, bore the responsibility for the fiasco.
In April 1961, just months after being inaugurated, John Kennedy gave the go-ahead for what became known as the Bay of pigs. It was an abortive attack on Cuba, planned during the previous administration, with the help of our spy apparatus. All of those who went ashore were killed or captured. Kennedy pulled our air support from the attackers, but after the scope of the disaster was known, he accepted full responsibility for the operation. His approval ratings went up, because we had a president who was willing to shoulder the blame for our policies.
In 1987, Ronald Reagan, faced with the proof of the Iran-Contra affair, which broke U. S. law, admitted, even though he did not want to, that it was true, and accepted the approbation for the scandal. It was a rare incidence of a President who actually knew the ‘buck’ stopped at his desk in the Oval Office.
Other than those high profile cases, taking responsibility for decisions made seems to be rare. But instances where blame should have been admitted, we see our leaders making excuses and pointing the finger at others for times when policies went astray.
Lyndon Johnson, even after the truth came out about the Gulf of Tonkin incident (it never happened the way he told the nation it did) refused to take any blame for the Vietnam War. Jimmy Carter never apologized to the American people for the runaway inflation on his watch. Bill Clinton, with all the women who accused him of inappropriate conduct, did not admit to his wrongdoing. In fact, his loyal wife called the number of such accusations a ‘bimbo eruption’ and one of his underlings talked about what you could get (in reference to those aforementioned ladies) if you drug a $100 through a trailer park. Mrs. Clinton even repeatedly called the accusations a ‘right-wing conspiracy’ to bring down her husband’s career.
In 2012, an attack on an American compound in Benghazi, Libya, killed four Americans. Neither then President Obama nor Secretary of State Hillary Clinton cried ‘mea culpa’ for their actions or inactions resulting in the killings. In fact, the Secretary of State and the President lied to the victims’ families about the genesis of the action against our people. Another Obama appointee, Attorney General Eric Holder, never admitted his role in the ‘Fast and Furious’ plan to give Mexican drug cartels guns. Those guns resulted in the death of an American Border patrolman. In 2016, Hillary Clinton continued her deflection of blame for her actions when she lost the contest for the Presidency to Donald Trump. In the ensuing years, she has blamed anyone and everyone, it seems, but never took any responsibility for her own shortcomings as a candidate, or as a person.
In the past few days, pundits, politicians on both sides of the aisle and ordinary Americans have been scathing in their denunciation of President * and his ‘handling’ of the U. S. pullout from Afghanistan. Poor or non-existent plans, no allowances for the collapse of the Afghan forces against the Taliban and the scenes of chaos at the Kabul airport, have even forced the media who propped Biden up have severely harmed the President’s reputation and his ability to lead the nation. We now know that the President’s team had ample warning of impending doom, as evidenced by memos now leaked to the media, and we also know that plans made by the previous administration for an orderly pullout were dismissed by Biden.
Americans are a forgiving people, if they see those in power admit to their mistakes. Attitudes of the populace toward Biden would be far different if he had come out and taken full responsibility for the failure of his own policies. But for Biden, it seems a simple, heartfelt ‘mea culpa’ is beyond him. And we, Americans and the world, suffer for his hubris.