Agreed in Principle to what Javed Choudhary wrote.
Just some food for thought and let me be the devils advocate for a minute.
If by chance or by design, I come across a certain person who is so determined to have a fight then my stern response will result in first punch from the aggressor and then I will be left with no choice than to respond in kind.
We as a nation are in similar situation, where we have to dive and duck on issues and then agree on some points, willingly or forcefully.
The stance taken by Zahri Sahib could be followed by a few other ministers but if the whole Govt follows such an attitude, then we'll be following the confrontation stance and will have no choice but taking the gloves off as other party is determined to fight.
George Fernandes (acting misinster at the time of incident) is a good example but later Advani (not in Govt at the time of incident) met similar fate and no apology came from US.
We will only earn respect once we are strong financially, and that can't be achieved unless we have good political leadership, vicious circle we have not been able to come out for sixty years. We seemingly came to the end of tunnel two three times but then the Generals pushed us down with the help of our corrupt politicians, with able assistance from Judges.
It seems we are about to reach at the end of this tunnel.