Taking another Look at the Axis of Evil through the Eyes of a New America
June 14th 2009 09:30
But goodness alone is never enough. A hard cold wisdom is required, too, for goodness to accomplish good. Goodness without wisdom invariably accomplishes evil.
~ Robert Heinlein
~ Robert Heinlein
On January 29, 2002 President Bush fired the first shots in what would be known to the citizens of America and the world as the “War on Terror.”
Much like the “War on Drugs” this would be the catalyst to yet another Invisible war with no clear objective for victory, would serve as a test to the basic rights of American citizens who found themselves on the wrong side of the conflict and would also open Pandora’s Box in forcing American citizen’s to face the discussion of legalities in modern wars that involve groups of people as opposed to nation to nation conflict.
The individual nations named in this report were Iran, Iraq and North Korea for their suspected but undocumented sponsorship of “terrorism” and lust for seeking weapons of mass destruction.
The important thing to note about this axis doesn’t lie within what happened or didn’t happen as it pertains to military involvement but rather goes squarely into President Bush’s definition of “evil” during a time of fear, uncertainty and a changing world.
Before the attacks of 9-11 America and the world enjoyed a long period of relative prosperity and peace but began to question the notion of there being any need for war famine or strife as the images from WWII began to fade from conversation.
The question of evil was boxed into regional conflicts and the minds of dictators that wielded no authority on the world in regional conflicts that occurred in obscure places that would not affect American or world interests and the red glow of communism had all but disappeared on the world stage.
The numbers of “enemies” to American interests were all but gone and comfortability began to take a strangle hold as the average American began to ask the questions of:
“Why do we have all these weapons?”
“What nation is going to attack us and bring war to American soil?”
Our questions were answered in the form of multi nation groups built on fundamentalism that lived for nothing more than destruction and preservation of their own sick form of religion over the rest of humanity.
Fear took hold as Americans, who had never seen an attack on American soil, from sea to shine sea were asked to give up their basic freedoms to root out the invisible enemy.
The game changed on us and in reactionary form our government chose to dig up old enemies that can be seen with the naked eye and turned citizen against citizen in a parade of patriotism instead of focusing on the real problems in the War on Terror.
Problems of a lack of education, understanding and the rise of fundamentalism as cultures felt their way of life was being forcibly changed by a foreign invader.
The first part of this axis involved an unfinished war with North Korea that came to a halt as the theory of “Mutually Assured Destruction” came into play once it was known that North Korea acquired Nuclear Weapons that could cause destruction and panic for their neighbors as well as other parts of the world.
The second part of this axis involved the issue of an emerging nation in the form of Iran who was seeking to become a world power by any means nescessary in a region that has America in a vice grip because of our addiction to foreign oil which lead to the rise of fundamentalism in the face of a changing world.
The third and final piece of this axis involved the nation of Iraq who also found itself as both friend and foe for different pieces of the game known as Middle East foreign relations.
Support for their part in war fare against nemesis Iran changed to the role of persistent pest as power lust came into play in a fight to protect oil interests in the region.
The name Saddam Hussein will always be engrained into the American consciousness as the villain who invaded a smaller nation and provoked the United States into conflict.
Iraq’s position on this axis didn’t come from the numerous acts of human rights violations through systematic rapes, mutilations, procurement of nuclear weapons, an invasion of Kuwait or use of biological weapons but came from playing a game of chicken at the wrong time in history.
The sleeping giant found herself forced to awaken from her slumber and the American public was desperate to find a place to point the finger.
Pointing the finger at a history of presence in a foreign land and disruption of political structures would have taken intricacy, knowledge and most importantly time.
In turn the decision was made to rehash familiar names and places to rally the American people behind things we were already aware of and the glow of unfinished business.
The easiest thing for President Bush and his administration to do was to display these maps and re-create enemies to put forth the image that we were doing something about the problems that came back to American soil.
When looking at the blind sided facts it was already understood that there was nothing we could do about North Korea nor is their anything we can do about a mad man who is willing to push the button from his death bed if provoked into anger.
There is no understanding that comes from the mind or heart of a mad man and speeches to his humanity will only prove fruitless.
The invasion of a nation based on rumor, vengeance and innuendo has tied the hands of our leaders and whether the reports of Iran procuring nuclear capability are true or not is an irrelevant point.
Iran will most likely acquire nuclear weaponry and the result will only amount to the same way we deal with Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea and other nations that don’t share the same values we hold dear as Americans.
In the end we have to come to an understanding that there is an axis of evil in the world but it is not based around the things President Bush proposed in his State Of The Union Address in January, 2002.
The list of these nations lead by men and women who have blood on their hands from directing human rights violations to secure and maintain power stretches to every continent in the world and also includes nations the United States does business with on a daily basis.
It is hypocritical for us to limit the conversation to these three nations while we build our daily debt ledger by the trillions to one of the worst purveyors of human rights in the history of the world.
When we look at the clues in the puzzle, our problems in the understanding of who is evil and who is good derives from the definition of these words and the only things we have gained from this dance is the ability to lose sight of who our enemies truly are as we try to keep our eyes on the elephants while the ants are taking us out at the knees…
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