America and the new 'axis of evil'

The term "axis of evil" came up just once in George W. Bush's 3,000-word State-of-the-Union address in 2002, but that was enough for the words of the former president to be known forever after as his "Axis of Evil" speech. Critics of our 43rd president — more outspoken than they had ever been of his father, George H. W. Bush, the 41st president — loved this reference, not for the truth in the phrase but for the ammunition it gave them, deriding his decision the next year to send troops into Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein. How ridiculous, they believed,…