"Bush might be unpopular in Italy, the Iraqi war is not popular in Italy, but Italians know damn well that in 1944, they were liberated by America from the Nazis," said Franco Pavoncello, a political science professor at John Cabot University in Rome.

Damn straight.

Likewise, Americans should know damn well what the French have done for the United States. Unfortunately, many do not.

American politicans, academics, and combinations thereof like to criticize Arab and Muslim educational systems for their deficiencies. I hope it is not too Democratic of me to suggest that people whose children are taught in glass portables should not throw too many rocks at the stone madrassas, lest they bounce back unexpectedly and disrupt a watered-down, papered-over, PC retelling of American history.

"Berlusconi is not simply pro-Bush, Berlusconi is pro-America," said a close aide. "His sense of gratitude is toward America for what it has done over the past 60 years, in World War II, the Marshall Plan, its role in the NATO alliance, in the cold war and, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in the fight against terrorism."

For Berlusconi, Bush's D-Day Visit Will Add Drama to the Drama