Terrible Apologies

Consider the case of Jacques Hechter, a South African police captain who murdered dozens of people and then read an unconvincing prepared statement of remorse at his amnesty hearing. Confronted afterward by David Goodman, a reporter covering the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Hechter responded to an accusation that his statement sounded wooden and disingenuous; according to Goodman (in the Washington Quarterly, 1999: p. 176):

Hechter wheels around and glares at me. “Ach, I’m not f—in’ sorry for what I did,” he says defiantly, his mouth cocked in a macabre half-smile. He stares directly at me, as if his stare could freeze me in place. “Look – I fought for my country, I believed in what I did, and I did a good job. They were my enemy at the time…. I did my job well. And I’d do it again if the circumstances called for it.”