Some may not like the US President, but we should all appreciate what America has done for the world ….
I don’t want the Americans to go home. In fact I am terrified of what would happen if they did. Their going home in the past has often meant suffering for others. Sure, I want them to change. I want more consistency. I want Bush to stop tolerating the nastystans of Central Asia, to tell Ariel where to get off, to treat allies with more respect, to dump the hubristic neo-cons, to sign up to Kyoto, to reverse ‘he who is not with me is against me’ to ‘he who is not against me is with me’. I would like acknowledgment of the mistakes and crimes of the past. I would quite like Bush to become Wesley Clark. | But our enemy is not America. —David Aaronovitch
—Why I say welcome  (Observer/Guardian)

This essay is popular in the blogosphere right now, as a sort of antidote to the protest coverage surrounding Bush’s visit to the UK.