about the Darryl Stingley hit.
Final Confessions of NFL Assassin Jack Tatum by Jack Tatum with Bill Kushner (1996)
“I don't think I have anything to be ashamed of or apologize for with respect to what America has done for the world.”
2000s
Context: There is nothing in American experience or in American political life or in our culture that suggests we want to use hard power. But what we have found over the decades is that unless you do have hard power — and here I think you're referring to military power — then sometimes you are faced with situations that you can't deal with.
I mean, it was not soft power that freed Europe. It was hard power. And what followed immediately after hard power? Did the United States ask for dominion over a single nation in Europe? No. Soft power came in the Marshall Plan. Soft power came with American GIs who put their weapons down once the war was over and helped all those nations rebuild. We did the same thing in Japan.
So our record of living our values and letting our values be an inspiration to others I think is clear. And I don't think I have anything to be ashamed of or apologize for with respect to what America has done for the world.
We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years and we've done this as recently as the last year in Afghanistan and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in, and otherwise we have returned home to seek our own, you know, to seek our own lives in peace, to live our own lives in peace. But there comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works.
Response to a question by George Carey (a former Archbishop of Canterbury), after the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland (26 January 2003), as to whether the US had given due consideration to the use of "soft power" vs "hard power" against the regime of Saddam Hussein; this has sometimes been portrayed as an accusation by an Archbishop of Canterbury that the United States was engaged in "empire building", in which Powell's response has been paraphrased:
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Colin Powell 63
Former U.S. Secretary of State and retired four-star general 1937Related quotes

“I will never apologize for the United States of America. Ever. I don't care what the facts are.”
Statement as Vice-president, during a presidential campaign function (2 Aug 1988); [Bush Ethnic Coalition Speech (at 42:46), C-SPAN.org, August 2, 1988, July 4, 2018, https://www.c-span.org/video/?3816-1/bush-ethnic-coalition-speech, 42:46]</ref>. Some commenters at the time saw this as a reference to the Navy warship USS Vincennes having shot down Iran Air Flight 655 on July 3, although Bush did not explicitly mention the shoot-down in the speech. The quote of the week section of Newsweek (15 August 1988) The quote of the Perspectives/Overheard section of Newsweek (15 August 1988 http://imgur.com/ieLrziL, p.15) described the quote as "George Bush, speaking to a group of Republican leaders about the accidental downing of an Iranian airliner", and in "Rally Round the Flag, Boys" http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,968407,00.html by Michael Kingsley in TIME magazine (12 September 1988), the quote was described as "the Vice President's reaction to the shooting down of the Iranian civilian airliner".
We must never apologize for the United States of America.
Speaking at the service club's honors banquet attended by 254 people at the Bluffs Holiday Inn, Council Bluffs, Iowa, late January 1988. "Bush Sidesteps Campaign Talk In the Bluffs" by C. David Kotok in Omaha World - Herald Omaha, Nebraska [Iowa Edition] (30 January 1988), pg. 1
"I will never apologize for the United States," the Vice President declared recently. "I will stand up for her."
"Bush, a Cautious Front-Runner Again, Avoids Attacks and Personal Campaigning" http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEFD9103EF934A15751C0A96E948260 by Gerald M. Boyd in The New York Times 27 February 1988, p. 1.8.
"I'm not an apologize-for-America kind of guy."
Speaking to a women's group in Concord, NH in February 1988. Dole and Bush: Dramatic Contrast of Styles . . . Bernard Weinraub, Special to the New York Times. New York Times. (Late Edition (East Coast)). New York, N.Y.: February 7, 1988. pg. A.32
If I am elected president, I will never apologize for the United States. I will strengthen her and make her a beacon of freedom and liberty!
Late April 1988, at a campaign stop at the Scranton Wilkes-Barre airport, in response to protesters of the Reagan administration's policies in Central America. Bush Vows to Attack Joblessness. Edward Power. Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia, Pa.: April 26, 1988. pg. A.8
My view, is let Mike Dukakis go around there and talk about pink slips, despair, pessimism in the United States. I'll be the guy out there talking about hope and opportunity and challenge, and the fact that the United States is the best, the fairest, the most decent nation on the face of the earth. Let them apologize for America, and let me lead her to new greatness.
Speaking to supporters in Washington D.C. May 4, 1988. Voters face clear choice, Bush says; [THIRD Edition] STAFF, WIRE REPORTS. Boston Globe (pre-1997 Fulltext). Boston, Mass.: May 4, 1988. pg. 13.
"Bush, who … came of age in World War II, instinctively identified with the crew members and captain on the Vincennes. He said he would not apologize for the incident. "I will never apologize for the United States of America!" he frequently declares in campaign speeches."
"Nominees' Beliefs Grounded in 2 Views of America; Bush Is Motivated By Pragmatism, Noblesse Oblige" by David Hoffman in The Washington Post [FINAL Edition] (30 October 1988) p. a.01
"[WW II] helped formulate his view of America as a military power: clearly in the right, with no shades of gray. "I will never apologize for the United States of America", Mr. Bush has said frequently."
"The 1988 Elections Man in the News: George Herbert Walker Bush; A Victor Free to Set His Own Course" http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEEDB143CF93AA35752C1A96E948260 By Gerald M. Boyd in The New York Times (9 November 1988)
"And I'll be honest with you, it's a joy to serve with a president who does not apologize for the United States of America."
in his closing remarks at a Vice-Presidential debate with Geraldine Ferraro in Philadelphia, PA, in October 1984. Bush, Ferraro Clash at Civic Center CHRISTOPHER HEPP. Philadelphia Daily News. Philadelphia, Pa.: October 12, 1984. pg. 3

"An Interview with Gwendolyn Brooks", Contemporary Literature 11:1 (Winter 1970)

“I don't think anything might have been. What is, is.”

Source: On the Completion of the Bunker Hill Monument (1843), p. 105
Context: America has furnished to Europe proof of the fact, that popular institutions, founded on equality and the principle of representation, are capable of maintaining governments, able to secure the rights of person, property, and reputation. America has proved that it is practicable to elevate the mass of mankind, — that portion which in Europe is called the laboring, or lower class, — to raise them to self-respect, to make them competent to act a part in the great right and great duty of self-government; and she has proved that this may be done by education and the diffusion of knowledge. America has furnished to the world the character of Washington! And if our American institutions had done nothing else, that alone would have entitled them to the respect of mankind.

The Massa Circus Takes the Air out of Glenn Beck
http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1970982,00.html
Glenn Beck: 'I Think This Is the First Time I Have Wasted an Hour of Your Time'
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/fnc/glenn_beck_i_think_this_is_the_first_time_i_have_wasted_an_hour_of_your_time_154527.asp
after an interview with Rep. Eric Massa