He didn't apologoze for what he said. He apologized to anyone who was
stupid
enough to misstake what he said as an affront to the troops. In other
words,
"I'm sorry you are an idiot".

So if I write: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, if
you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be
smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck as a
Democrat," it shouldn't offend dems at all because I was insulting the
fact they ask you to register under a party in order to vote. -- And
according to the statement above, if a dem is offended, he could be an
idiot!