Word: evils
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Ronald Reagan had carefully prepared for the moment, rewriting by hand several portions of the speech. An earlier draft read, "Surely historians will see [that the Soviets] are the focus of evil in the modern world." But speaking before the National Association of Evangelicals in Orlando, Fla., Reagan made the speech tougher by removing the business about the historians. He also denounced calls for a nuclear freeze, saying that to agree to one would be to accede to "the aggressive impulses of an evil empire." His uncompromising rhetoric unsettled members of the Washington establishment, who warned that it would reheat...
Frum never expected his stern language to pass the President's lips. But as new drafts were written, it stayed in the speech. Gerson injected theology into the key phrase, turning "hatred" into "evil." By mid-January, Bush had decided that Saddam had to go. Other countries were added to the axis--first Iran, then North Korea. In the address, Bush declared, "States like these constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world." Frum's simple assignment had given birth to the defining phrase of a presidency. --By James Carney
...security services raped and tortured his opponents, gassed Kurds rebelling against rule from Baghdad in 1988 and summarily executed those Saddam mistrusted. This fascination with Saddam's cruelty, says a source close to the White House, was neither ghoulish nor an expression of Bush's propensity to identify evil in the world. The point, says this adviser, is that Bush thinks Saddam is insane. "If there is one thing standing between those who want WMDs and those who have them," says this source, "it is this madman. Depending on the sanity of Saddam is not an option...
...This War Would Not Be Moral" [VIEWPOINT, March 3], Duke theologian Stanley Hauerwas asserted that by describing Saddam as evil, Bush "gives this war a religious justification." But religion has nothing to do with legitimizing this war. Saddam's immoral behavior provides the basis for action. He has used poison gas on the Kurds, supplied money to suicide bombers and built lavish homes for himself--all while Iraqis starve. These actions are evil and alone provide more than enough moral justification for war. Going to war is never the first option, but when all others have been exhausted...
Hauerwas got it right. Too many people in America believe we are appointed by God to eliminate evil in the world. Do they honestly think that supplanting Saddam will end evil? Won't it be a call to arms for all militant or angry Muslims, whether or not they support Saddam today? It's too bad that Saddam wasn't finished off in 1991. But there is no justification for mandating his end just because he deserves it and we are frustrated by his presence. There must be better, more creative ways short of war. Otherwise, where does this process...