Peace and peas. Many Americans will be praying for one this week and getting the other instead. My guess is that few in America's current political leadership will even silently ask for the divine national pardon envisaged by Washington in the original Thanksgiving proclamation. And that's precisely why peace isn't currently on the American menu and won't be for some time.

So what should America be asking forgiveness for? Well, there are a number of things that come to mind all of which fall under a single catchphrase: ignorance at home, arrogance abroad.

It would be convenient for the more liberally inclined among us to pin blame for these American attitudes entirely on Bush administration officials. They are after all the chief architects of a war built on hyperbole that has killed thousands of innocents, strained our key alliances, weakened our economy, and served as an effective recruiting tool for our enemies. They are also the ones who have backed out of and, in some cases, attempted to scuttle a number of international treaties designed to make the world healthier, more just, and sustainable. These acts alone would seem to justify a collective "sorry".

Yet, the roots of America's foreign policy arrogance reach back many years and enjoy fertile ground in both political parties. Recall that it was President Clinton's Secretary of State Madeleine Albright who declared that the United States is "the indispensable nation" that "stands taller" and "sees farther" than the rest of the world. You can guess how well that type of comment goes down in diplomatic circles.

Clearly, our arrogance comes at an international price in terms of lost credibility and damaged working relationships. So why not dispense with it and replace it with a foreign policy based on integrity and humility?

That's where the other side of the coin, domestic ignorance, comes into play. Many Americans think that the US really is superior to other nations, not only economically and militarily but morally. Seen in this context, President Bush’s failure to admit to a single mistake during his first term is not the least bit surprising. He is delivering exactly what the people expect from their highest-ranking civil servant: the warm feeling of infallibility.

Benjamin Franklin saw some of this coming a couple of hundred years ago with the selection of the Bald Eagle as the national emblem. He argued that the haughty bird was "of bad moral character" and that the American spirit would find a more suitable representative in the modest and industrious wild turkey.

Yesterday, the President went on the record with some turkey comments of his own when he rescued two plump birds from the White House chopping block. This got me thinking. Instead of granting pardons to innocent birds, perhaps President Bush should use this holiday season to ask for a few of his own. He could start with the thousands of innocent families, American and Iraqi, who have lost loved ones in a war that he could have avoided altogether or, failing that, better planned to prevent the unnecessary loss of life.

Similarly, in place of apple or pumpkin, the President and his new foreign policy team might try a slice of humble pie for a change. Although difficult to swallow, it may be the only way of putting peace back on the menu for next year's Thanksgiving celebration.

Roger Doiron writes about food, agriculture, politics, and culture. He is the founder of Kitchen Gardeners International, a nonprofit organization promoting home-grown, hand-made foods in their many international forms.

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