01/30/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09676

BUSH ON AXIS OF EVIL

In his State of the Union Address on January 29^th, President Bush said that discoveries in Afghanistan by the United States-led coalition "confirmed our worst fears and showed us the true scope of the task ahead. We have seen the depth of our enemies’ hatred in videos where they laugh about the loss of innocent life. . . . We have found diagrams of American nuclear power plants and public water facilities, detailed instructions for making chemical weapons, surveillance maps of American cities, and thorough descriptions of landmarks in America and throughout the world."

U.S. forces have put the terrorist training camps of Afghanistan out of business, yet camps still exist in at least a dozen countries. As President Bush said, "A terrorist underworld -- including groups like Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, and Jaish-e-Mohammed [jeh-shay mo-HAHM-med] -- operates in remote jungles and deserts, and hides in the centers of large cities." "So long as training camps operate, so long as nations harbor terrorists, freedom is at risk," said Mr. Bush. "And America and our allies must not, and will not, allow it."

Some countries, including the Philippines, Bosnia, and Pakistan, are cracking down on terrorists. "But some governments will be timid in the face of terror," said President Bush. "And make no mistake about it: if they do not act, America will."

Another goal is to prevent regimes that sponsor terrorism from threatening America or its friends and allies with nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and ballistic missiles. "North Korea," said Mr. Bush, "is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while starving its citizens. Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people’s hope for freedom. Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax and nerve gas and nuclear weapons for over a decade."

"States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world," said President Bush. "And all nations should know America will do what is necessary to ensure our nation’s security." Mr. Bush said the U.S. would be deliberate in its actions but "will not wait on events while dangers gather. . . . The [U.S.] will not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most destructive weapons."

"Our war on terror is well begun," said President Bush. "But it is only begun."