The Financial Times in its Editorial this morning did what I did two days ago and looked back at President Bush's axis of Evil speech and the impact that it had on North Korea. Its conclusion is the same as mine, "Mr Kim's continuing antics also throw America's broader "axis of evil" strategy into sharper relief. It is four-and-a-half years since Mr Bush conflated the war on terror with the threat of weapons of mass destruction and elevated Iraq, Iran and North Korea into a special category of global pariahs. The record so far is not good. Far from having milked global sympathies from the September 11 2001 attacks to isolate the most dangerous rogue states, the US is today seen as more of a problem than a solution." The Editorial also offers three lessons which President Bush should learn from this episode:
First, talking to other countries - particularly those that hate you - is not a sign of weakness. Many of the Bush administration's leading figures cut their teeth as inveterate opponents of detente with the Soviet Union in the 1970s. Instead of learning from Ronald Reagan, who used direct talks to exploit the USSR's weaknesses in the 1980s, they continue to portray anyone favouring dialogue as appeasers. [..]
Second, democracy cannot easily be implanted in foreign soils. As we have seen in Iraq and are worryingly close to observing in Afghanistan, where the Taliban are threatening a comeback, building democracy requires more patience and investment than Mr Bush has so far been prepared to offer. Military occupation rarely leads to democracy. But without a minimum level of stability it cannot hope to survive.
Finally, multilateralism often works. In late May, Mr Bush showed he had belatedly grasped this point by offering multiparty talks to Iran. Already there are signs that the mere offer of dialogue has sown divisions among Iran's mullahs. How much more could have been saved if Mr Bush had done this in 2003 when a better chance presented itself? ...
Let's hope that the Bush administration learns from the mistake that was the axis of evil. Apparently, President Bush seemed to have learn something since he emphasized the fact yesterday in his news conference that the North Korean problem would be resolved diplomatically and multilaterally.
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