Never apologize and never explain -- it's a sign of weakness.

Here we have an Illinois congressman, Mike Quigley of the 5th District, apologizing "on behalf of this country" to the American Islamic College Conference in Chicago.

I've grown weary of this and others that remind me of the "blame America first" mentality that was so prevalent in the late 70s that weakened the United States internationally.

It's like deja vu all over again. If you're not familiar with it, I high recommend Democrat Jeane Kirkpatrick's remarks at the Republican National Convention in 1984. An appetizer:

"But then, they always blame America first.

The American people know better.

They know that Ronald Reagan and the United States didn't cause Marxist dictatorship in Nicaragua, or the repression in Poland, or the brutal new offensives in Afghanistan, or the destruction of the Korean airliner, or the new attacks on religious and ethnic groups in the Soviet Union, or the jamming of western broadcasts, or the denial of Jewish emigration, or the brutal imprisonment of Anatoly Shcharansky and Ida Nudel, or the obscene treatment of Andrei Sakharov and Yelena Bonner, or the re-Stalinization of the Soviet Union.

The American people know that it's dangerous to blame ourselves for terrible problems that we did not cause.

They understand just as the distinguished French writer, Jean Francois Revel, understands the dangers of endless self- criticism and self-denigration.

He wrote: 'Clearly, a civilization that feels guilty for everything it is and does will lack the energy and conviction to defend itself.'

With the election of Ronald Reagan, the American people declared to the world that we have the necessary energy and conviction to defend ourselves, and that we have as well a deep commitment to peace."

• Also published at Conservative Reformed Mafia.