Still an artist with a keyboard . . .

From Mark Steyn's latest:

Regionally speaking, the reasons for toppling Saddam were to (a) end Iraq's ongoing subversion of Jordan; (b) put the squeeze on Syria; (c) show, by the sheer scale of intervention, that the Saudis' non-co-operation on the matter of terrorist funding would no longer be tolerated; and (d) - the big one - initiate democracy in Egypt, to which America gives billions of dollars and which in return gives America Osama sidekick Ayman al-Zawahiri, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman (the man behind the 1993 World Trade Centre attack) and Mohammed Atta (the man in the cockpit on the second attack). To one degree or another, (a), (b), (c) and (d) are all under way.
You can scoff at this agenda, but go back just five years, to the death of ol' Pa Assad. "I received word not very long ago of President Assad's death in Syria today," said an emotional Bill Clinton at Minneapolis Airport. "I was very saddened by it, and I want to offer condolences to his son, his family and the people of Syria."

I'm sure his family would have been very touched if they hadn't been so busy trying to kill each other. Still, at least Mr Clinton didn't go as far as Mr Chirac, who decided to show up at the funeral to offer his sympathies in person to whichever kinfolk weren't in exile or deceased in unusual accidents.

But then French foreign policy has always been admirably straightforward: find the bloodthirstiest nutcake and put him on the payroll. Bill Clinton, in adopting Elysée standards of sexual morality, also found himself adopting them on questions of broader geopolitical morality. Clapton-wise, he metaphorically got out his sax and played Tears in Heaven.

Whatever happens in the weeks ahead, that world is gone.