> I hate the idea of 2 'if's in a language.

depends whether you think xpath is a different language or the same
language. If you don't like two ifs you not going to liek two for loops
either
<xsl:copy-of select="for $x in foo/x return $i"/>
<xsl:for-each select="foo/x">
  <xsl:copy-of select="."/>

David