President Bush cites ‘axis of evil,’ Jan. 29, 2002
In delivering his State of the Union message on this day in 2002, President George W. Bush branded three countries — North Korea, Iran and Iraq — as rogue states that he said harbored, financed and aided terrorists.
Speaking less than five months after al-Qaida-linked terrorists — none of them citizens of the states Bush named — attacked New York and Washington, the president said these three countries constituted an “axis of evil” — a phrase that became a hallmark of his administration’s foreign policy. As he put in in his 3,900-word address:
“States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic.”
Bush added: “[W]e will work closely with our coalition to deny terrorists and their state sponsors the materials, technology and expertise to make and deliver weapons of mass destruction.”
In remarks often punctuated by congressional applause, Bush went on to say: “And all nations should know: America will do what is necessary to ensure our nation’s security. We’ll be deliberate, yet time is not on our side. I will not wait on events while dangers gather. I will not stand by as peril draws closer and closer. The United States of America will not permit the world’s most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s most destructive weapons.
“Our war on terror is well begun, but it is only begun. This campaign may not be finished on our watch, yet it must be, and it will be, waged on our watch.”
While vowing that no members of the triple “axis” would be allowed to obtain weapons of mass destruction, Bush proved unable to prevent North Korea from testing its first nuclear weapon in 2006 and, subsequently, deploying a missile-based delivery system.
In February 2003, a month prior to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Colin Powell, the secretary of State, told the United Nations Security Council: “We know that [dictator] Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction; he’s determined to make more.”
However, Saddam was bluffing; no such weapons were ever found.
Bush concluded: “Our enemies send other people’s children on missions of suicide and murder. They embrace tyranny and death as a cause and a creed. We stand for a different choice, made long ago, on the day of our founding. We affirm it again today. We choose freedom and the dignity of every life. Steadfast in our purpose, we now press on. We have known freedom’s price. We have shown freedom’s power. And in this great conflict, my fellow Americans, we will see freedom’s victory.”
SOURCE: “This Day in Presidential History,” by Paul Brandus (2018)