The Malevolent Alliance

During the State of the Union address in January 2002 when President George Bush identified three countries as belonging to an Axis of Evil the country was generally surprised. There has certainly been a history of Iran, Iraq, and North Korean shenanigans qualifying them for such a grandiose title. Yet people at the time, even in the afterglow of 9-1-1, seemed catatonic to the grim facts the President was laying before them.

Four and a half years later the population has elaborating behavior demonstrating the insight which sparked the use of such language. Conjuring up images of the Axis Powers of World War II and President Reagan’s Soviet reference of The Evil Empire, George Bush placed these rogue nations on notice and upon the same infamous pedestal. The countries which he identified have bore out their labels. He illuminated those regimes as cockroaches lurking in the darkness scurrying the modern globe.

Iraq which was perhaps the most benign of the three was, like North Korea, run by a megalomaniac bent on holding power by the only method it knew; violence. The brutality of the Hussein dictatorship was for the population of Iraq an obvious form of terrorism. It was evident in war with Iran, through an invasion of the sovereign Kuwaiti nation, and against the Kurdish population in Northern Iraq. In those places the terror served to heighten fears within Iraq.. They heightened realities based upon government actions and the use of force including lethal chemical weapons of mass annihilation.

North Korea’s recent posturing and missile firings have heightened the tensions in the Far East and around the world. Another little troll-like doll of a leader, Kim Jong-Il, is having a temper tantrum and threatening the world. North Korea’s nuclear ambition places the free world more ill at ease because of the super repressive nature of the regime. Heap upon that Russia and China’s reluctance to intervene to control the little bugger and ipso facto you have another despot trying to hold the west for ransom in a strategic terror ploy.

Iran the unstable Middle East sister of the other two has a different form of government yet is no less dangerous. It revels in an inquisitional auto de fe of the modern era. The spiritual underpinnings of the culture has run amok and placed the reigns of governmental power with the hands of religious fanatics. The resulting torment of its own people is in the name of Allah. However, more importantly it is a haven of support for exporting terror and anti-western action. Top it off with another nuclear program and like the other two in the alliance it supports sects that oppose western religions in favor of promoting its own world view. They also breed state sponsored terror.

These three rogue cultures slink along supporting the underworld of barbarians which each harbors its own way. Since that State of the Union message each country has either been shown or has demonstrated themselves to be of the caliber the President described. The method of dealing with each however, has been unsatisfying.

Iraq’s tyrant has been deposed creating a vacuum for all the global slithering ilk to fill. It is the biggest success story for the U.S. to date to spite all the hoopla to the contrary. Whether that country makes it to full fledged democracy remains to be seen. There is a pro-western government evolving. America has done about all that it can to send them on the right path. The final choice is up to the Iraqi’s.

What once was thought of as a nation the people who would take back Iran has become troubling in the hands of a hard line Ayatollah puppet President. His rhetoric is as threatening as anything man has ever heard with echoes of Adolf Hitler. North Korea is center spotlight currently because they’re not merely using words but provocative action to demonstrate their instability. The U.S.’s strategic military hands are tied lest it risk nuclear conflict. Global pacifism and cowardice has given rise to a safe harbor for nations such as these and autocrats that rule them.

Whatever the course for the iniquitous trio the world has had plenty of warning signs to ponder much like the Nazi’s provided before World War II. Typified by the United Nations inaction this internationally auspicious body has proven itself to be another League of Nations. The world is in for a rocky ride over the next quarter of a century. Those who have chosen to ignore the verbal warning President Bush gave in 2002 are seeing the fruits of the failure. International response has been insignificant in the face of identified threats. If history is a gauge it will have to get much worse before it ever gets any better!