Overly offended

I read Owen Carlton’s letter mocking Mr Rudd for his light aside when he called himself a “Kokoda survivor” after completing the modern day walk of that historic track.
Owen, I admire you as an ex-serviceman and respect what you and the others all did for Australia. This is no slight on you.
I just want to say that I reckon you have read too much into Mr Rudd’s comments.
I can’t agree with you that his comments shows that “he believes himself to be the most important person who has ever experienced it”.
He was referring to the modern trek, not the original war time experience!
His comments were at worst flippant and insensitive, but they were not some kind of utter arrogance and self absorbed delusion.
He does not “disrespect 104,000 Australians who made the ultimate sacrifice” (as you said). You jump to an extreme conclusion that reflects more your political bias than the actual incident.
You also criticised his apology “if I have offended anyone…”.
It seems to me that that phrase is common public usage for apologies.
Did you get upset with Alan Jones when he gave a similar (actually much weaker) apology after saying what he did about Ms Gillard’s father, for example?
Did you write a letter condemning him?
Jim Reiher,
Eumemmerring.