We should celebrate Columbus Day soberly and gratefully.

Recently, some evangelical churches have apologized for the Doctrine of Discovery, a contested fifteenth-century Catholic Spanish theory that Christian explorers could claim and take land previously unknown to themselves if it was ruled by non-Christians, a theory the United States Supreme Court falsely claimed was a universal aspect of international law.

The odd thing about Bashir and Erdogan is how little they understand the West, and particularly the United States. There is no condemnation of America, its history, and its actions that foreign regimes can make that Americans did not make first, still make, and made more convincingly.

The Middle East is not overloaded with statues of historic figures, but they do exist. Some are of imperialists and slavers.