None of Iraq’s political factions —or officials and others with political, economic or security influence — will truly answer the question: “Have you erred?” Sometimes their response is generalized and clichéd, such as: “Perfection is left to God alone.” This in itself is pure prevarication, because it points to a lack of desire to admit wrong, and precludes any readiness to apologize for mistakes.
Since 2003, Iraq has been on a path strewn with mistakes that have reduced its forward momentum to a crawl filled with pitfalls. Yet, not one official has ever come close to apologizing for errors committed, to a point where the trend has become akin to an institutionalized political tradition.