http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,72711,00.html

Guess it wasn't so ridiculous for Bush to include North Korea as they just got caught exporting missile technology.

I never thought it was ridiculous to include North Korea because of its missiles. I thought it was ridiculous because it took an overly self-righteous tone at a time when a cool head is sorely needed. More of a phraseology problem than anything. I suppose it was his speechwriter's fault, anyway.

Israel gives technology and info to China. They should be in the "Axis".

Interesting, would you please provide more info?

Yeah, that's an intriguing little tidbit, but you probably should back it up with actual facts.

All of you are forgetting this well known and time proven principle of shipping ... The only way to pack and ship missiles is in cement.

Nox

k

Special Report: U.S. Military Technology Sold by Israel To China Upsets Asian Power Balance

China-Israel ties worry US

U.S. warns Israel over sales of military technology to China

Israel is like fredo in the Godfather, we know they are bad, we know they are betraying us, but no one really wants to kill them.

Homer

No one has to kill them. They just have to cut them off the welfare teet. Hard to do that when your country is ran by "dual-loyalists" though.

It wasn't the fact that these countries represented a threat to the US that made the "Axis of Evil" speech so ludicrous. It was A) the implication that these three countries were united. Sure, none of them like the US and the West, and Iraq openly despise us; real collaboration between long term enemies Iraq and Iran and secretive, hostile Communist North Korea is, however, totally lacking in plausibility. A few weapons exports and a common enemy does not make an alliance (otherwise the lefties would have even more historical ammunition to criticise America with). America has sold weapons to a lot of countries it certainly would consider to be "allies of good", or whatever.
Point B is pretty much what Armed&Angry said. Introducing the concepts of "good and "evil" trivialise a delicate and complicated international situation, and turn real threats into fairly-tale phantom enemies obviously destined to fail (and then we'll all live happily ever after THE END). And describing Iran as "evil" was a serious setback to the pro-West, pro-democracy reformists in Iran.

quote:

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Originally posted by FuckOffandDie:
the implication that these three countries were united.

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As I recall, the WWII 'Axis' countries were just as much "united". I thought that the analogy, 'Axis of Evil' was fairly accurate and did adequately describe those 3.

Nox

No, Hitler, in his book Mein Kampf, which was written before he had any sort of power, praised both Italy and Japan.

He praised them! Wow, that sure is evidence of union. The Italians did nothing of significance in WWII, they were crushed in every campaign they participated in and were a liability to the Germans. Japan and Germany had no real military or economic connection during WWII. Their only example of collaboration is when the Germans gave the Japaneese an enigma machine, which the Japaneese renamed "Purple".

German troops were actually defending Italian holdings much of the war, so there was certainly a Union between them.

Germany declared war on the US in support of Japan, and there were a number of Germans living in Japan during the war.

It's not just Iraq, Iran and North Korea who ship missiles out. It's a common practice. America does it, Britain does it, Israel does it (actually I'd say they are more of an axis of evil)

the thing with WW2 was this - Britain was at war with Germany, Italy and Japan due to the old empire bringing them into conflict with all 3 nations. And Japan was at war with America, who was eventually at war with germany too. All 3 had one major thing in common though, they all left the League of Nations in the early 30s for one reason or another. (I don't know about Japan, but Italy and Germany were natural allies becasue of the mutual Fascism) Whether or not they physically collaborated or not is not important as they all helped each other by dividing Allied forces into several fronts. (Western, Eastern, North Africa, Asia, Pacific Rim) Where as only Germany and japan fought on 2 fronts.

Hmmm...others seem to have said what I wanted to say. There were deep ideological similarities between Fascist Italy and National Socialist Germany which I don't need to insult your intelligence by outlining, and to an extent with the militaristic, expansionist Japan and there were formal agreements which existed between the countries.

And I doubt that Iran or North Korea would make the mistake of declaring war on the US in support of Iraq.

It's a call-to-arms speech. It's supposed to be overly dramatic.

Iran and Iraq are certainly not allies. They hate each other, almost as much as they hate the USA.

As far as I know, the US has no immediate plans to attack two of the three named countries. "Call to arms" speeches are supposed to sound confident, patriotic and focused on clear goals, not a paranoid, asinine rant.

He was preparing the way for what we'll do after Iraq.

I seriously doubt that, particularly after North Korea's little reminder about their nuclear capabilities. Besides, a smart leader keeps his aces up his sleeve.

I suspect that the North Koreans have a nuke hidden in one of the tunnels they dug under Seoul waiting for an attack on the North as a deterrent. This is why I think that our response will be far different for NK than the response we give Saddam.

Nox

Here's how to deal with NK. Nuke North Korea, Nuke Beijing - Nuke loads of other Chinese - get nuked - destroy world.

If you attack NK, China will but in, and believe me China are always looking for ways to sort out their overpopulation crisis - if you catch my drift.

quote:

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Originally posted by ChuckStone:
[BIf you attack NK, China will but in,[/B]

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At one point in history I would have agreed. I'm not as certain of it today.

Nox

the US will not attack NK.. they now have the ability to fight back (nuclear capability).. which the iraqis don't have.. thats why they aren't allowed to have it.. btw.. i'm not insulting americans per se.. put simply it means that even the 'leaders' can't hide in that one.. so they'd rather not..