I may just have been swung behind Bush....

Just when you thought all was lost and I was going to stay on the fence I may just have inadvertently slipped off. I hate myself for it and, given the immense cock-up in Iraq, feel slightly sordid for saying this, but I might just be swinging behind Bush. The reason?

One article by Mark Steyn in today's British paper the Daily Telegraph. As well as almost entirely removing any doubt over who wrote the controversial article about Liverpool and Ken Bigley in the Spectator last week, he writes a bullish article, much of which, to my surprise, I exceptionally agree with. The killer paragraph for me, however, was this:

"The Islamists have made a bet – that the West, in its twilight days, is too soft and decadent to muster the strength for this long struggle. Would you say the Britain on display to the world in the weeks before Mr Bigley's murder would have disabused them of that analysis or confirmed it?"

I am worried that a victory for Kerry will be one more nail in the coffin of Western world dominance and the prevalence of Western values. This article makes it seem even more poignant.

Yes, I know that Iraq hasn't helped. I know that the gun-toting neo-Christian zealots of the bible-belt are scary (although they at least will use the 'democratic' process), I know that this will mean returning a big state deficit-pumping President who struggles to string together coherent points in public, I know that Kyoto won't be approved (even though Kerry may not do that anyway...). I also know that the West has to appear strong and resolute and that we must not fight our internal fights in a way which shows we have lost our nerve.