Axis of Evil speech Jan 2002

[irisblue]

GWB & David Frum. After some research, I found notations that the N.Koreans were shipping SCUD missiles thru Yemen in late December 2002 & that was the impetus for their inclusion in the Axis of Evil speech.
I do recall the speech, and I was suprised by by the Korean inclusion, it seemed an unneeded poking of Korea.

Would an historian rec a text or book for me to read. Thanks

[underpants]

1. Yep. Everyone thought "North Korea"?

I remember having a conversation with one of my best friends and his wife (we all went to high school together in the 80's) and they asked "If it's so bad why Iraq and not North Korea?" My response was "SUV's don't run on kimchi" ---actually I'd read that here on DU. They cracked up.

[irisblue]

2. The start of the run up to the Second Gulf War was slipping into place

Multi national military were already in Afghanistan (BTW George H Bush did a much better organizing job in the First Gulf War IMO), weaponry going through a semi functional client state of Saudis Arabia would have grabbed Cheney's attention. I do not understand why the SCUD missiles weren't handled very quietly.
Testerone overload?

[aschnackenberg]

3. Perhaps there weren't any policy implications at all...

Let's remember Bush had a fondness for religious rhetoric that had no bearing on reality.... as the phrase "Axis of Evil" itself shows. Perhaps he felt like calling out some "enemies" in a way that harkened back to WWII, and maybe someone on his staff decided it wouldn't do to just call out Muslim countries, but they needed a token baddy from somewhere else in the world.

The SCUD connection *is* interesting though, but it's not like other countries weren't shipping weapons to less-than-noble regimes in the region (eg, Chinese missiles being delivered to Pakistan).