Eclectic Amateur

David Warren is someone who I try to read regularly. Here are a few reasons why:

From Lebanon; Canada:

The French have, I think, looked fairly deeply into the new course of Middle Eastern events, and decided with their customary fortitude that they must choose the winning side.
…
The French ambassador will of course write in to correct me, explaining that France’s position is consistent with the ideals it has always upheld. God bless him.

Yes, I couldn’t resist the gratuitous French-bashing. More seriously, let us hope and pray that the current American and French pressure on Syria does lead to better days for poor, poor Lebanon.

From A bag of Smarties:

Generosity is not the only quality that distinguishes Americans. Many of the other qualities are less attractive. Sometimes I even think they are boobs, but usually not for long. An open heart is an open mind, in my experience, and I know no other people who are such quick learners.

And why do I like Bush? Because he is so damned American. The course he has led, over the last four years, and through the hell of Afghanistan and Iraq, and is now beginning to lead into Lebanon, is, I am now utterly convinced, one of the glorious passages in American history. The good that is being achieved, without entirely counting the cost, is real, and I will pray, enduring.

The sun is shining today. So many people ask me, sarcastically, how can I like Americans, and how can I like Bush? I thought I would just answer.

Indeed. As an American, I am happy, and a bit proud, that the Hussein family is out of business and that millions of Afghani and Iraqis are now getting the best taste of freedom they’ve yet had (at least in a generation — I am aware of my characteristic American historical amnesia; maybe there was some “golden age” in those countries previously that I don’t know about.).

I do fear for the cost, for I agree that we have not counted it; and the reckoning may be dear.

But, in a sense it is to our glory that we have not carefully counted it. For, if we do it right, it will be a good thing that we do here, and if one counts the cost-benefit ratio of a good deed too carefully, it stops being a good deed.