The Axis of Evil Prevails

Early on in his Presidency, George Bush initiated his scare tactics strategy by limning the "Axis of Evil", North Korea, Iran, and Iraq. My simple observation is this : under his aegis hasn't the President witnessed, participated in, and exacerbated a world crisis in each of these countries ? As he said, "Bring it on !"

In Iraq we suffer with our servicemen and and women caught in the sights of a little understood civil war with thousands of Americans dead or wounded. Today Johns Hopkins reported that 655,000 Iraqis have died because of this war. The President's response to this was first of all that it certainly wasn't true, but in any case it showed that the Iraqis were able to tolerate some level of violence.This sounds like a costly way to earn your freedom.

We have wrangled with Iran (the winner of the Iraq War) over their nukaloor ambitions to edge of sanctions, which are certainly soon to follow.

Now this week we've reached crisis over North Korea over their pitiful atomic testing, so there has been a rush to blame some previous President (guess who) about stopping Kim Jong Il.It seems that the most important, most efficacious messages from the White House are those that blame other Americans.
As I see it,under Clinton the NKs were being, if not contained, at least slowed down, but nothing at all was accomplished in the six Bush years that followed. You see the current administration plays the game of diplomacy by refusing to communicate with this so-called Axis. Also,it doesn't help matters when your Secretary of Defense serves on the board of a company that sells several light water reactors to the most atomic member of "The Axis of Evil."