From the Feverish Dolt Who Discovered ‘The Axis of Evil’

You gotta love the neocons for their persistence: David Frum, as a speechwriter for President Bush, came up with the term “Axis of Evil.” The idea that Iran and Iraq were somehow in alliance was laughable to anyone who knew anything about the Middle Easet, but then the Bush Administration has always relied on the probability that most Americans don’t know too much about that part of the world, nor will they ever if they rely on television to explain it to them. And “Axis of Evil” sounded just, so, you know, “Scary Movie….”

The policy that accompanied Frum’s slogan was equally bereft of contact with reality, with the result that North Korea now ostensibly has nuclear weapons. Frum is not deterred, however. In fact, he’s pissed. Mighty pissed, in a “this time, Kim, it’s personal” kind of way. In a New York Times op-ed he suggests that the U.S. needs to step up missile defense, starve North Korea by forcing South Korea to stop sending food (I love the respect that these yahoos show for South Korean sovereignty, continually stung by the fact that now that it has become a democracy, South Korea continually makes choices different from Washington on how to deal with the North), punish China by inviting Taiwan to NATO meetings, and encourage Japan to develop its own nuclear weapons.

Should we laugh or should we cry? Frum’s op-ed, more than anything else, is an eloquent testimony to the absence of adult supervision in the Bush Administration — which, of course, is why they’re in the mess they’re in. Punish China, eh? Careful, Dave, they may stop buying U.S. Treasury Bonds…