 Richard Boucher, the new head of South and Central Asia at the State Department, stopped short of offering an apology for the death of more than a dozen civilians in the Bajaur airstike by US planes. Asked at a talk he gave on Thursday at the Johns Hopkins University on President George BushÂ’s recently-concluded trip to South Asia as to why the United States had not apologised for the death of innocent civilians, including women and children, in an airstrike on the tribal town of Bajaur, he danced around an answer, in the end falling well short of the apology that he could well have made. It was obvious that he was not going to venture an answer that would go beyond what, by all indications, is a well-considered decision, No apology! |