"AMERICA IS EXTREMELY NAUGHTY"
-Protest Banner in Tehran, Iran
The success of a major presidential address is judged by whether or not a particular phrase "sticks" in the political vocabulary. President Bush's State of the Union address of three weeks ago contained the political equivalent of "Where's the Beef?"
"States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world," Bush told Congress. The president accused "these" states - Iraq, Iran and North Korea - of developing weapons of mass destruction and fermenting further chaos in a world that needs no more.
"The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons," pledged Bush.
Seems reasonable enough. But judging by the reaction from numerous quarters, you'd have thought the president told the joke about a priest, a rabbi, a minister who walked into a gay bar.
The French ("We surrender!") foreign minister called the language "simplistic." Former secretary of state Madeline Albright called his words "a big mistake." Democrat Sen. John Kerry labeled the comments "a serious mistake."
Of particular, bowel-twisting concern was Bush's use of "axis of evil," harkening back to the Axis powers of WWII. The fear, raised by the inheritors of Neville Chamberlin and Jimmy Carter, is that, by calling these countries for what they are, we may push them further against us. Indeed, two weeks after the State of the Union, an estimated "millions" of Iranians marched through Tehran chanting, "Death to America!" Just thirty years ago, they were chanting, "Death to Disco!"
But does "axis of evil" apply to these countries? Are they dangerous enough to single out among the community of nations? Or is this another one of the president's virtually innumerable rhetorical missteps?
Let's begin with the least of these black sheep, North Korea. Fully one-tenth of their population, two million souls, died due to famine over the past decade, the equivalent of 28 million here at home.
Aside from the general misery accompanying every communist nation's agrarian policies, the tragedy is further compound by the government's waste of capital on developing chemical and biological weapons while its populace dies.
Adding to the litany, and most troubling for the United States, is North Korea's continuous selling of ballistic missiles to Syria, Libya and - here's the eye-raiser - Iran.
Axis one.
The Islamic Republic of Iran constitutes axis two. Their annual $100 million subsidization of Hezbollah allows the terrorist organization to, among other things: attempt to thwart the Arab-Israeli peace process, train with al Qaeda operatives in Lebanon and ship 50 tons of weapons to Palestinian terrorists.
Oh, they're also developing a nuclear program with Russia's assistance and are engaged in an "across-the-board pursuit of weapons of mass destruction," accused CIA director George Tenet.
The third axis is Iraq. We all know the depravity "President" Saddam Hussein is capable of inflicting not only on smaller nations (Kuwait, Israel) and his enemies (Iran), but his own people. No-fly zones exist in northern and southern Iraq for the purpose of protecting the Kurdish minorities who live there. Hussein, who's killed more Arabs than any person in history, tested weapons of mass destruction on his own people.
Too bad Hussein isn't as cartoony a villain he's so frequently portrayed. Then we could save a lot of time and money by droppin
