I agree with you 100%. We taught our children when they were young how to apologize (and what is NOT an apology) Anytime you put *any* disclaimer in your apology such as "IF I offended you" or "I am sorry YOU are offended" etc. - that negates the apology.
You must state what you did "I apologize for issuing this offensive and unwarranted statement about our brave soldiers." Then you state any further words of a positive nature.... "We must all remember we owe our freedoms to these veterans" and THEN you ask "Will you please accept my apology?"... THAT is how you apologize!
At our house we don’t even say “I’m sorry”,
we say “What I did was wrong, will you forgive me?”
*nod* - Though communication errors are sometimes difficult to apologize for. I’ve said things like “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for [statement] to be taken _that_ way, I meant it to be taken _THIS_ way.” before... or the other way, on the hearing side.