I am not convinced that the governments of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea are any more evil than those of the Duvaliers, Somoza, Stroessner, or Pinochet were, and those were governments that men of Mr. Bush's political persuasion found eminently satisfactory.
I am also not convinced that any of the states in the "axis of evil" have caused the US sufficient injury or pose sufficient threat to the US to justify war.
War is a device to be used as a last resort, when no other will suffice. I simply see no justification, on a cost/benefit scale, for provoking a war with any of these states at this time. Whether or not they are "evil" is a side issue, and not a very significant one, as far as I can see.
What have the North Koreans done to earn the title "evil"? Certainly they have an astonishingly bad government, but if bad government were evil, the axis would be large indeed.
I believe that the considerable resources required for a war against evil would be much better devoted to a task which we aren't hearing much about: rooting out the al Quaeda network in the West. I hope that the general silence on this subject does not mean that it has been forgotten. |
