The Axis of Blunders - 1
3/2/07
by William Hessell

The trilogy is now complete.  The last leg of Pres. Bush's Axis of Evil speech in 2002 has collapsed in disrepute and failure.  His war in Iraq has been a tragic disaster for both the United States and Iraq, with no resolution in sight. Iran's more moderate government lost an election and was replaced by very anti-western leaders, ending what support Iran had been offering in fighting Taliban rule in Afghanistan and al Qaeda terrorists worldwide, and leading to Iran's taking whatever steps possible to further their nuclear capability.  And now it is revealed that with North Korea, agreements that had been in place to keep their weapons development in check were challenged and torpedoed by the Bush administration, leading to North Korea's return to years of unrestricted nuclear weapons development.  Faulty and slanted intelligence, together with stonewalling the possibility of diplomatic interaction with those who were labeled as the prime members of the Axis of Evil, has led to repeated failure and loss of stature in our conduct of foreign affairs.  Bush's Axis of Evil speech may go down in history as a precursor to a series of tragic miscalculations and a case point in how not to approach diplomatic relations.