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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (3267)	3/12/2002 2:02:28 AM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

One-Liner Is Doubling Back on Bush March 5, 2002 THE MEDIA lapped it up when President George W. Bush gave them "axis of evil," a piece of red meat that fits in headlines and can be chanted monotonously. But as this now famous phrase reverberates, being reminded of it may end up annoying Bush. He must already be annoyed at White House speech writer David Frum, who coined the phrase and put it in Bush's mouth. Frum's wife, Danielle Crittenden, then unwisely bragged in an e-mail that he had invented it. Frum is now out of a job and I'm sure Crittenden feels dreadful about her wifely bragging. I suppose if Bush had babbled "axis of pond slime" it wouldn't have had the same ring. But evil is so broad in meaning that it can describe the clucking of a bunch of censorious old biddies sitting on a front porch hissing insults at passing floozies. It's a word so judgmental as to rob it of all the subtlety we know exists in the real world in which even Bush must operate. By naming members of this supposed axis, Bush recklessly exculpated a lot of wretched governments while needlessly insulting at least two that may be ripe for reform. The South Koreans are furious at Bush. They have to live next to the North Koreans, who, in their hopelessly isolated and friendless condition may be more desperate than ever for some form of détente. By also gratuitously insulting the Iranians, Bush offended a regime that gives hopeful signs of a desire to rejoin the club of housebroken nations. Iraq was an easier call, of course, but I wonder if Bush realizes Saddam Hussein now rules it because Bush's own father declined to conquer it. This curious new axis, unlike the one Hitler put together, runs through Baghdad, Tehran and Pyongyang. Compared to the more infamous one that bound Berlin, Rome and Tokyo as fraternal allies, this is one moth-eaten axis. Its members aren't even allies. Two of them, Iraq and Iran, were at war with each other from 1980 to 1988. Besides, by omitting some of the world's most truculent governments - Libya's, Cuba's, Syria's, Myanmar's - Bush makes little sense. What about Saudi Arabia, which has cynically arranged the transfer of American wealth to a kingdom where they don't even let women drive cars? They're all dumps. Bush's definition of evil also founders on the long history of America's expedient friendship with evil regimes. I'm reminded of Richard Nixon's shameless détente with Romania, then misruled by the loathsome Nicolae Ceausescu. Eisenhower's courtship of Franco's Spain comes to mind. By reducing his formula of evil to simplistic terms, Bush says only three nations are dumps when we all know the world's full of regimes that mistreat woman, stifle expression, torture or deny representative government. Jimmy Carter suggested last month that the "axis" one liner was something far worse than a president - or his speech writer - being glib. "I think it will take years before we can repair the damage done by that statement," he said. I wish I had a pair of magic goggles that would give me Bush's black-and-white vision of a real world where shades of gray predominate. Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc. newsday.com