George Bush's delusion
Tragedy does not give America a free hand

Such is the inevitable way, perhaps, of a hard-hearted, cynical world. But when George Bush, president of the very nation that was targeted, follows suit and begins to exploit and manipulate the September 11 tragedy for political advantage, alarm bells must ring out loud. Yet this is exactly what Mr Bush's first state of the union address unabashedly set out to do. All US policy, both international and domestic, is now framed in terms of last autumn's emergency; all measures, however partisan and divisive, are justified in the name of patriotic unity and solidarity; all misgiving and dissent must be overridden for the sake of America's "just cause". Mr Bush, in his black-and-white way, has clearly convinced himself that in what he calls the "decisive decade in the history of liberty", his duty, mission and calling is to direct the triumph of good over evil at home and abroad. "America will lead by defending liberty and justice because they are right and true and unchanging for all people everywhere," he declared.

This is a premise fortified by falsehoods and underpinned by a delusion. The principal falsehood is that the policies Mr Bush now advocates are dictated by an ongoing terrorist menace. They are not. Primarily they are the products of conservative Republicanism, set dangerously loose in September 11's aftermath. There is nothing new, after all, in the idea of Iran, Iraq and North Korea representing an "axis of evil"; the American right has been gunning for them for years. There is nothing new about the ballistic threat. Mr Bush has long wanted missile defences ; now he uses September 11 to justify his plan. When Mr Bush speaks of "tens of thousands of dangerous killers schooled in the methods of murder... spread throughout the world like ticking bombs, set to go off without warning", he is not only being irresponsibly alarmist; he is also disingenuously justifying the whopping $48bn defence budget increase he always dreamed of.
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thanks to wood s lot

ANGERED BY SNUBBING, LIBYA, CHINA
SYRIA FORM AXIS OF JUST AS EVIL
ANGERED BY SNUBBING, LIBYA, CHINA SYRIA FORM AXIS OF JUST AS EVIL

Bitter after being snubbed for membership in the "Axis of Evil," Libya, China, and Syria today announced they had formed the "Axis of Just as Evil," which they said would be way eviler than that stupid Iran-Iraq-North Korea axis President Bush warned of his State of the Union address.

Axis of Evil members, however, immediately dismissed the new axis as having, for starters, a really dumb name. "Right. They are Just as Evil... in their dreams!" declared North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. "Everybody knows we're the best evils... best at being evil... we're the best."
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