America and the new “axis of evil”

The phrase “axis of evil” appeared only once in President George W. Bush’s 3,000-word State of the Union address in 2002, but the former president’s words will forever be known as “the axis.” It was enough. evil” speech.

Critics of the 43rd president, who was more outspoken than his father, the 41st president, George H.W. Instead, it gave them ammunition to mock his decision the following year. He sends troops to Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein. How absurd, they believed, to think that Iran, Iraq, and North Korea could all be colluding in an “axis” of evil.

More than 20 years later, those words are rarely criticized, but it’s hard to deny the hard truth in his words. President Bush ended his brief mention of the evil they might produce with a warning: “They could provide these weapons to terrorists and give them the means to match their hatred.”

Unfortunately, his enduring words come back to haunt us.

The regimes in Pyongyang and Tehran are colluding more closely than ever before. Amid the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel, North Korea is suspected of shipping drones and missiles to Iran, as well as technology for Iran to manufacture its own weapons. On the other hand, Iraq has existed under the heavy shadow of Iran since the fall of the Saddam regime in 2003.

Bush has the right to say “I told you so.” His words speak as openly and boldly today as they did 22 years ago. But let’s not think about his foresight (and the foresight of his aide, David Frum, from whom the term derives). It is important to recognize the cooperation between Iran and North Korea because of the private conflict that confronts each of these very different, geographically separated but closely connected authoritarian states and their much larger friends. It is our will.

Behind these two troublesome powers, one under hardline communist hereditary rule in Northeast Asia and the other an “Islamic Republic” in the Middle East, are two far more powerful forces: Russia and communist China. It’s a force. Through them, missiles, drones, and other weapons associated with North Korea can fall into the hands of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which can use them to attack not only its own people but also the entire region, especially Israel. It can terrify you.

So far, the Iranians must be bitterly disappointed that the barrage against Israel earlier this month has been a complete failure. The lesson is that Israel, with heavy help from its allies the United States and Jordan, has shown how incapable it is to inflict real damage on Iran and its de facto ally, North Korea. Thing. The only victim was a seven-year-old Arabian girl from a Palestinian village in Israel, who was seriously injured and fighting for her life. Iranians must be wondering how they failed so miserably.

But now is not the time to breathe easy. Only five months after 9/11, the massacre of nearly 3,000 innocent people by Arab terrorists who flew hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in 2001, Bush described The “Axis of Evil” is currently spreading from Tehran through Moscow. And from Beijing to Pyongyang.

In a sense, North Korea and Iran are proxies for Russia and China, weaponizing their resources and forces for wars that serve Russian and Chinese interests. The two powers see Washington embroiled in a war for Israel as factions in Congress fight over funding to help Taiwan fight Russia in Ukraine and counter the constant threat of mainland China’s military. I like it more than anything. Of course, it goes without saying that America will need to build up its own expanding military, which is already thinly spread around the world.

In the midst of all these dangers, we have President Bush to thank for realistically recognizing the risks America faced 22 years ago. Rather, the danger is greater than it was then, as the United States and its allies rise up against authoritarian regimes that destroy America’s friends and allies, and the freedoms and democracy that we all so easily take for granted. It’s much more serious.

Donald Kirk has been a journalist for more than 60 years, focusing much of his career on conflicts in Asia and the Middle East, including as a correspondent for the Washington Star and Chicago Tribune. He is currently a freelance correspondent covering North and South Korea and is the author of several books on Asian affairs.