“TWO OUT OF THREE AIN’T BAD,” sang Meat Loaf some years ago–a song of which my good wife reminded me (well, to be exact, told me about) when I worried that I had not been entirely accurate when I named three countries in which I thought our ambassadors are not doing as much as they might to uphold and defend America’s foreign policy positions.

Some readers may recall that in the January 14, 2004 issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD I complained that our policies were being undermined because our ambassadors are missing in action in the war of ideas. I have no regrets about having mentioned Britain, where our ambassador remains invisible although our president and Britain’s gutsy prime minister need as much public support as can be deployed to combat the antiwar factions that are accusing George W. Bush of having fabricated intelligence reports on weapons-of-mass-destruction and Tony Blair of playing his poodle by going along with the lie. What I said then is as true now as when I wrote it, so true that several private groups are meeting to come up with a plan to fill the gap created by the embassy’s absence from the battlefield of ideas.