A brilliant column by Daniel Finkelstein on Tony Blair's failure so far to pick up his Congressional Gold Medal:

The United States of America is a flawed nation. So is every country in the world. Every one has fought ill-advised wars and exported dubious ideas, pursued questionable foreign policy doctrines and suffered internal dissension and poverty. Every one.

Yet unlike almost every other nation, the United States has also been a beacon of liberty. We know this here in Europe because it was to our shores that American boys came to protect one part of the Continent from the totalitarian instincts of the other part. It was here they gave their lives and here they stayed to defend us from ourselves and here from which they departed when their job was done, without retaining a single piece of real estate, save the cemeteries in which they buried their sons.

...As its name suggests, the medal is not the gift of the President. Nor is it a piece of party patronage. It requires the sponsorship of two thirds of the members of the House of Representatives and 67 Senators. This is a gift from the entire American people.

Congressman Richard Baker said of Mr Blair’s award: “This medal attempts to capture for history what most Americans feel in their hearts — Tony Blair is a hero.” This is a commonly held view in the United States, where even those who hate the war in Iraq are deeply grateful for the way the Prime Minister rallied to their side after September 11, 2001.

...Mr Blair believes that being seen to receive his medal would be politically disastrous, especially among members of his own party. As one Labour MP put it: “As far as many of us are concerned, if Tony takes that medal it would be like taking an award from Satan.”

And that, of course, is precisely why it is essential that not another moment is lost. Tony Blair must fly to Washington. Our Prime Minister must stand under the Dome of the Capitol and receive his medal from our great ally. And he must do this not just because he deserves it. Which, incidentally, he most certainly does.

He must go because the American people need to know how much we value their friendship. He must go because the tide of anti-American feeling in this country needs to be confronted. He must go because he should be proud, not ashamed, that he said yes when our allies came to call and asked whether, after all the support they have given us, we might reciprocate. He must go because the commitment to spread democracy around the world is a brave and noble one. He must go as a bold statement to the enemies of liberty everywhere that those who defend freedom are bound together and are resolute.

Read the whole thing.