Fine, nothing wrong with this. Nothing much wrong with apologizing to germany for Dresden. There is a lot of controversy on whether the bombing was justified or not. It isn't clear cut and there is more than enough on both sides to apologize for but nothing wrong with expressing regret for the need or the perceived need at the time and hoping that such never happens again. Nothing wrong with reaching out to a friend and vowing never again to go back to being enemies.

My only question and one that was originally at Ace of Spades is do you think Obama will catch 1/10th the flak that Regan got when he wanted to visit a graveyard in Germany to express the friendship of the US and Germany, to express grief for the war. To bow your head and acknowledge that as bad as Nazism as an ideology was many of those in the cemetery were young men - barely more than boys. In many ways they were a victim of Nazism as well.

Sure, Obama may catch some crap from those sources that would fault him no matter what he did, but for the most part he won't get anything close to what Regan got.

Maybe this is because Obama is The One and must never be questioned. Maybe this is because we are 20 years older now and times have changed.

In any case, nothing wrong with a little bit of diplomacy on Obama's part which is what this is.

The linked article says nothing about an apology.

There is some symbolism involved in visiting Dresden. If there's an article saying Obama is going to apologize, post it.

The comparison between this and the Bitburg controversy is also stretched.

Reagan's controversy was about being seen to commemorate the deaths of SS troops buried in the cemetery while not visiting concentration camps the SS troops were responsible for. Worse, his direct comparisons between SS troops and concentration camp victims, "They were victims, just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps" was pretty damn insensitive.

Oh please. Acknowledging that Germany suffered during WW2 while at Dresden is apologizing.

That is obvious. I am not attacking Obama in the least for this.

"acknowledging" means one of two things - most especially when at a place as controversial as Dresden.

It is either in-your-face ha! look at what you suffered type of response which is obviously won't be or it is an acknowledgment of a terrible tragedy where the Allies were the instigator. It may not be an actual American apology. It may be worded more as an apology that it happened than an apology that the Allies did it, but it is an apology. The very act of acknowledging it is expressing regret for it at least in this context.

Thanks for the added wiki article
quoting from that:
the reason Obama will probably get much less critisism, is because he probably isn't stupid enough to choose words like that ^^^

I understand what he meant, but to me this isn't only offensive to the people that got killed in the concentration camps, but also to his own American soldiers who probably were not much older than 18 too...to me it feels like he's saying they did nothing.

true, but those words came after he was catching all sorts of s**t about it. They were an attempt to defend himself which only made it sound worse.

I don't view this as an apology either. Further I don't think an apology is called for. (I don't think anyone here is suggesting that we do apologize.)

Bombing cities like Dresden was initially instituted by the Germans. The Germans declared war on the US before we reacted. Hitler, as the leader of Germany is wholly responsible for Germany's suffering during WWII.

I doubt the allies knew that the bombing of Dresden would result in a fire storm effect.
Considering the wartime temperament it may not have mattered to them if they did. Judging any of those acts now is way out of context.

Recognizing that Germany suffered horrible consequences for Hitler's actions does not seem to constitute an apology to me.