The Axis of Evil: From Rhetoric to Reality
By grouping Iran, Iraq, and North Korea together, Bush's policies targeting them have driven the countries into each others' arms
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By Stan Crock
When President Bush first uttered the phrase "Axis of Evil" in his 2002 State of the Union Address, many experts thought it was laughable. While the countries referred to -- Iraq, Iran, and North Korea -- were all malevolent, "axis" implied the kind of linkage that existed in World War II between Italy and Germany and, to a lesser extent, Japan.