The cold calculation of national interests is a complex business, as any student of game theory can tell you.

ECONOMIST: Charlemagne

So my guess is that those kinds of discussions are not altogether different, that I think President Bush was making -- reaching the same calculation, which is that it would be in the best interests of the safety and welfare of our American servicemen and women to issue an apology and make it clear that those actions were unintentional.

WHITEHOUSE: Press Briefing by Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest

Every country in the Middle East would make its own new calculation of how much it could afford to support U.S. interests.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: What if we lose?