I love George W Bush

I've been feeling twinges for some months and years now. Deep in my secret heart of hearts. But having recently read "World War IV: The Long Struggle against Islamofascism" by Norman Podhoretz, and the transcript of President Bush's speech to the Knesset, I realize its full blown puppy-love.

First, it was my realization that George W had a road-to-Damascus experience very similar to my own about who the bad guys are and what our response should be. That comes across very clearly in World War IV.

Next, it was this part of Mr Bush's speech to the Knesset:

'There are good and decent people who cannot fathom the darkness in these men and try to explain away their words. It's natural, but it is deadly wrong. As witnesses to evil in the past, we carry a solemn responsibility to take these words seriously. Jews and Americans have seen the consequences of disregarding the words of leaders who espouse hatred. And that is a mistake the world must not repeat in the 21st century.

Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: "Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided." We have an obligation to call this what it is -- the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.'

George W Bush is not an intellectual. He reads a lot, and he seems to have the practical, straightforward mind. He doesn't overthink, in the vogueish phrase. He takes the men of violence at their word (and deed), doesn't underestimate them, and he doesn't have any intention of losing to them. Thats about it really. I pray that the next US President is blessed with this sort of common (pretty uncommon actually) sense.