THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS

It is the dawn of a New Year and President Bush is faced with what is perhaps the most serious challenge to his Presidency. What is at stake is nothing less than his place in history as the leader of the Western World. No American President has ever been faced with such a serious and intractable problem as that posed by Saddam Hussein. The Iraqi dictator, the corporeal embodiment of the Axis of Evil has proved to be an evil foe indeed. The Butcher of Baghdad, that master of deceit has thwarted the President’s every move at bringing him to bay. Saddam has been engaged in that most frustrating of techniques of international intrigue. He has aggressively cooperated with the international community’s disarmament inspections. That perfidious cooperation is in itself a material breach of the norms of international relations and provides President Bush with no alternative but to mobilize American’s armed forces to defeat the evil Hussein’s de-stabilizing campaign of cooperation.

Kim Chong-il, the North Korean Communist dictator, the last of the old line Stalinists, is playing the proper role on the stage of international affairs. In doing so he has furnished President Bush with what has been lacking for Republican administrations since those glory days when Ronald Reagan charted diplomacy from the pages of old movie scripts – a reliable and predictable enemy. Armed to the teeth and spouting defiance Kim has openly declared his intention to build more atomic bombs and the means to deliver them against all enemies. That is how enemy dictators are supposed to act. By providing the West with an focus of fear North Korea is providing that stabilizing influence missing on the international stage since Moscow discovered McDonalds and Beijing opened its arms to Coca-Cola (or is it Pepsi?). President Bush is gratefully rewarding this welcome development by sending the State Department out to launch tried and true cold war diplomacy.

The contrast between the two dictators is so marked as to be memorable. One is playing his proper role, providing the President with the justification he needs to let contracts for the construction of the National Missile Defense system. You simply can’t build a National Missile Defense System unless you have missiles to defend against. You can’t justify the cost unless those missiles aimed against have nuclear warheads. Kim Chong-il is providing that essential element in the Bush Administration’s plan for economic recovery – a reliable foe.

At the other pole of the Axis of Evil Saddam is planning his next evil move to thwart America. What will it be? Something perfidious to be sure. Something like opening a Baghdad McDonalds or a Basra Starbucks. Is there no end to the Iraqi capacity for evil?