3/18/2002
On January 29, George W. Bush stood behind a podium on Capitol Hill, stuck a feather in his cap, and called it an axis of evil. (Here's the full text just for reference.)
Public reaction was muted and sort of embarrassed. It was a patently daft thing to say, if what he meant to imply was that Iraq and Iran--never any too fond of one another--were colluding together somehow, let alone that North Korea--very far away from the prior two and not yet shown to have any dealings with either of them to speak of--was in on any such conpiracy. And Bush didn't and doesn't seem one whit concerned with demontrating or even suggesting any evidence for such a thing. But in fact there's no conspiracy and Bush hasn't even bothered to claim that there is, not in so many words. Apparently it's simply that these three countries are so "evil" in his morally objective estimation that their presence together on the same planet constitutes an "axis." Whatever that is, exactly. The point is emphatically not for you, the public, to consider any facts. The point is that Something Must Be Done!
He intended to convey the impression of a conscious coalition, mind you. There is no other possible reason for choosing the word "axis" but the desire to align these nations with the Axis, our enemies during World War II, which were genuinely in cahoots. "Axis of Evil" is as loaded a term as could possibly have been devised, and that's no accident. Its purpose is to issue the verdict, thereby skipping the indictment and the trial, and move straight to imposing punishment.
Why? Rest assured, there is always a reason. Nobody much thinks this is actually about anybody being evil. It sets the stage, which was in some danger of growing stagnant, for more state of emergency and more public fear--which is precisely the cover he needs to further his usual agenda, which might not otherwise be so popular.
And lest we forget--he himself was never very popular before there was an emergency at hand and general terror among Americans. Now, given a high-profile disaster to use for his soapbox, Bush has gamely declared war on pretty much everybody. Why? Because it's working for him. He's gone from tepid to beloved in no time at all.
People don't like war, mostly, but for whatever reason they adore war presidents. Bush's father, the elected president, knew that very well, and did away with his "wimp" reputation by generating a war. It was a nice tidy war, too, against a small weak country, far away. Now his son shows how well he understood that lesson; he's targeting every small weak country in sight, and suddenly everyone loves him. He can do this all day long, and he will. He will pull wars out of that hat as long as he's allowed to remain in office--at whatever cost. His design is not to solve problems so he needs no rational means. He will do, he is doing, everything in his power to reshape this country and its idea of itself in the image of a crusading warrior nation, wreaking justice upon all corners of the world, all in the name of the wrong done against us. He gets both more belligerent and more hypocritical with every step. He has stepped into the role of New Law in Town--the sherriff of all the Earth.
At rock bottom, of course, the specifics of President Bush's war and his son's wars are entirely about oil. But we'll get to that.