What is axis of evil

20 years ago, the US coined the phrase ‘axis of evil’. Guess who’s been the most evil since?

Robert Bridge is an American writer and journalist. He is the author of ‘Midnight in the American Empire,’ How Corporations and Their Political Servants are Destroying the American Dream.

Robert Bridge is an American writer and journalist. He is the author of ‘Midnight in the American Empire,’ How Corporations and Their Political Servants are Destroying the American Dream.

Judging by the way past US leaders have described their rivals, you’d think Washington has been fighting against the likes of Darth Vader. On March 8, 1983, then-President Ronald Reagan branded the Soviet Union, America’s Cold War adversary, as an “evil empire” that was the “focus of evil in the modern world.” Fast forward nearly two decades later to January 29, 2002 and George W. Bush echoed Reagan’s fiery sermon in his State of the Union message when he described North Korea, Iran, and Iraq as rogue states belonging to an “axis of evil.” These were no accidental slips of the tongue.

The use of the good-bad dichotomy by Reagan and Bush worked as a simple yet highly effective propaganda tool since nobody wants to be seen defending ‘evil’, a word with strong biblical connotations practically synonymous with the devil himself. Thus, Republicans and Democrats were unanimous in their belief that these ‘evil regimes’ were worthy of annihilation, and who better to wage such a battle than the ‘exceptional’ nation? (Incidentally, just four months before Bush mentioned the ‘axis of evil’, the self-proclaimed ‘war president’ spoke about a “crusade on terrorism.” Predictably, that poor choice of words set off alarm bells across Europe, which is no stranger to wars of religion).

But was the Bush administration merely projecting its own ‘evilness’ onto other governments? Just days before Bush delivered his infamous ‘axis of evil’ speech, the US opened the doors to hell on earth known as Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp (Gitmo), or, as Amnesty International dubbed it, “the Gulag of our time.” Built on the southernmost tip of Cuba at the US Guantanamo Naval Base, a slither of land the US gained following the Spanish-America War (1898), Gitmo has become synonymous with brutality, torture, and the perversion of justice. In a word, ‘evil’.

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the first prisoner’s arrival at Guantánamo Bay. Nearly two decades after the start of the U.S. so-called war on terror, 39 people are still detained at the detention camp where prisoners have detailed torture and other horrific conditions. #OTDpic.twitter.com/ajHlKczLiE

Former Gitmo detainees in Bush’s ‘war on terror’ – many of whom were denied a trial or even legal counsel – have described horrific scenes of inhumane treatment, including sexual degradation, forced drugging, and religious persecution.

Moazzam Begg, a prisoner-turned-activist who spent three years at Gitmo, described the scenes of horror he witnessed. “I saw two people beaten to death,” Begg revealed to RT. “I saw one prisoner with his hands tied above his head to the top of the cage being repeatedly punched and kicked until he was killed. The Americans have accepted that this was a homicide.”

Personally speaking, the moment when I sensed something had snapped inside the American mind came after photographs emerged of detainees inside Camp X-Ray at Gitmo. The images left an impression that is hard to shake: a group of detainees kneeling inside a barbed-wire enclosure and wearing the standard orange jumpsuits, are seen handcuffed and outfitted in the latest ‘sensory deprivation’ gear – earmuffs, darkened goggles, face masks, even heavy mittens – with US soldiers hovering immediately behind them. Was the US military afraid that one of their prized prisoners – many of whom were never found guilty in court – might escape their island paradise and swim to freedom in shark-infested waters?

If not, then what was hoped to be gained from such cruel behavior, visible for the entire world to see, aside from the further radicalization of the enemy? At this point, the US looked every bit as sadistic, barbaric and, yes, ‘evil’, as the people who attacked us on 9/11.

But Uncle Sam was just warming up. Following 9/11, the Bush neocons would go hunting for those responsible for that outrage, right? Well, yes and no. Although Washington opened up a military offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan for harboring Al Qaeda mastermind Osama Bin Laden, it quickly lost the support of the global community when it inexplicably turned its gun sights on Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11.

Here, the US must share some of its ‘evil’ accolades with its foremost ally, the United Kingdom. In September 2002, the then-UK prime minister, Tony Blair, in an effort to build the case for a military invasion of Iraq, cited an intelligence dossier that said Saddam Hussein could launch chemical weapons at the UK in just 45 minutes, a remark that the British tabloids happily devoured. (Not until 2016 with the publication of the Chilcot Report was it revealed what many had suspected all along: Saddam Hussein “posed no imminent threat” to the UK).

Unfortunately, there is a dark footnote to the Iraq War that cannot be ignored considering the subject at hand. In April 2004, human rights violations against detainees at the hands of the US military were revealed to have occurred once again, this time at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The abuses, euphemistically described as ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’, included torture, rape and sodomy. The Economist, summing up this little shop of horrors, carried a front-page photo that showed a hooded detainee with arms outstretched standing on a box and attached to electrodes, with the words “Resign, Rumsfeld,” in reference to the then-secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld.

In 2008, after eight long years of neoconservative planet smashing, battle-weary Americans were ready for some hope and change, electing the Democrat, Barack Obama, to the White House. The entire world let out a collective sigh of relief, confident that America’s first black president –greeted almost universally as a savior – would usher in an era of peace, tranquillity, and sanity. The world would awaken from its fever dream sooner than it could have imagined. In March 2011, the global fireworks started once again as the US and Western allies began a massive aerial bombardment of Libya, which had been struggling through a civil war.

Soon it because obvious that the excuse of “protecting civilians” was a thinly veiled pretense to bring down the government of Muammar Gaddafi. And although Gaddafi certainly had his character flaws, as do most leaders, he had turned Libya into the wealthiest country in Africa. The wealth, however, was not hoarded by a small cabal, but shared among the people in the form of free medical care and education.

When the then-secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, learned of the death of Gaddafi, who was brutally killed by a street mob, she proclaimed with a giddy cackle, “We came, we saw, he died.”

As for Barack Obama, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize after just nine months in office, Libya actually registered as a small blip on his radar screen. In 2016 alone, US forces dropped at least 26,171 bombs on foreign countries. Syria and Iraq were both targeted some 12,000 times each, while Afghanistan (1,337), Libya (496), Yemen (35), Somalia (14), and Pakistan (3) also experienced attacks on their territory. Obama – the ‘peace president’ – left office in 2016 with the dubious distinction of being at war longer than any other US president in history.

One of the unfortunate legacies of the Bush and Obama administrations – which delivered the world 16 years of warmongering – was the expansion of executive powers to start military conflicts without congressional approval. It also empowered US presidents to order drone strikes on American citizens abroad without due process thanks to the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) law. At the same time, the government may gather millions of Americans’ emails and phone records – as Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency employee turned whistleblower, revealed in 2013 – with minimal judicial oversight.

That brings us to Donald Trump, the maverick political outsider who pledged to “drain the swamp” and put the brakes on America’s overseas military adventures. While the 45th POTUS has the rare distinction of keeping the US out of a full-blown hot war for the duration of his one term in office, this achievement is clouded by the realities on the ground.

Under the populist Republican leader, bombings against Afghanistan hit an unprecedented level compared to prior years. In the first nine months of 2018, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) documented 8,050 civilian casualties (2,798 deaths and 5,252 injured), which was a similar number to the same period in 2017. This was the most civilian deaths during the same nine- month period since 2014.

Meanwhile, two years ago this month, Trump ordered the assassination of Iran’s top general Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) Quds Force. Soleimani, who Tehran says had been on a diplomatic mission in Baghdad by invitation of the Iraqi government, was killed by a US drone strike near the city’s airport. What is so remarkable about Washington’s decision to take out Soleimani is that this gifted commander played a large role in eliminating the Islamic State network across the Middle East; in other words, he was practically an ally of the US in the fight against terrorism. What has the US gained from his death? Like so many other US moves on the geopolitical stage in the past, the reasoning behind this is hard to decipher.

The preceding has been a summary, and a very limited one, of the menacing – some might say ‘evil’ – behavior of the US over the course of several presidential administrations. The purpose of such an outline is not necessarily to demonstrate that the US is perhaps more rapacious than other governments, but rather that it has very little room for branding other nations as inherently ‘evil’. In fact, the overt acts of ‘evil’ carried out by Iraq, Iran, and North Korea, which could warrant some sort of aggressive response from the US, are simply non-existent.

Although it could be argued that these three countries have particular national traditions that might be labeled ‘oppressive’ from the Western perspective, it would certainly take little effort from the citizens of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea to cite problems with the US that they also find worthy of contempt. However, to allow the rhetoric to go so far as to say that an entire people are inherently ‘evil’ is simply irresponsible and reckless. These countries are no more inherently ‘good’ or ‘evil’ than the US is; nations can be expected to behave either ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ as the circumstances dictate.

With that said, in the current frame of reference, there can be no doubt that the ‘bad behavior’ committed by the world’s military superpower, the United States of America, has far exceeded that of the so-called ‘axis’ of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. Yet there remains a question worth asking: would the behavior of those three axis countries have been more in line with that of Washington’s had they enjoyed more military strength on the geopolitical stage? That’s perhaps best left for the political philosophers to answer. But Lord Acton probably summed it up best with his well-known maxim, “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.” ​​In other words, ‘absolute power’ is the real ‘evil’ that we should be most concerned about.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

Axis of evil

The term ‘axis’ was used as a collective term during World War II (WWII) to identify Germany and its key allies, Japan and Italy. U.S. President George W. Bush used the term Axis of evil in his State of the Union Address on January 29, 2002, and often repeated it throughout his presidency, to describe governments that he accused of helping terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction. Iran, Iraq and North Korea were portrayed by George W. Bush during the State of the Union as building nuclear weapons. The Axis of Evil was used to pinpoint these common enemies of the United States and rally the country in support of the War on Terror.

Contents

2002 State of the Union

In his 2002 State of the Union Address, Bush also called North Korea «A regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while starving its citizens.» [1] He also stated Iran «aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people’s hope for freedom.» [1] Of the three nations Bush cited, however, he gave the most criticism to Iraq. [1]

He stated «Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax and nerve gas and nuclear weapons for over a decade. This is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens, leaving the bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children. This is a regime that agreed to international inspections, then kicked out the inspectors. This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world.» [1] Afterwards, Bush said, «States like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.» [1]

David Frum

Frum points in his book to a now often-overlooked sentence in Roosevelt’s speech which reads in part, «. we will not only defend ourselves to the uttermost but will make very certain that this form of treachery shall never endanger us again.» Frum interprets Roosevelt’s oratory like this: «For FDR, Pearl Harbor was not only an attack—it was a warning of future and worse attacks from another, even more dangerous enemy.» Japan, a country with one-tenth of America’s industrial capacity, a dependence on imports for its food, and already engaged in a war with China, was extremely reckless to attack the United States, a recklessness «that made the Axis such a menace to world peace», Frum says. Saddam Hussein’s two wars, against Iran and Kuwait, were just as reckless, Frum decided, and therefore presented the same threat to world peace.

In his book Frum relates that the more he compared the Axis powers of World War II to modern «terror states», the more similarities he saw. «The Axis powers disliked and distrusted one another», Frum writes. «Had the Axis somehow won the war, its members would quickly have turned on one another.» Iran, Iraq, al-Qaeda, and Hezbollah, despite quarreling among themselves, «all resented power of the West and Israel, and they all despised the humane values of democracy.» There, Frum saw the connection: «Together, the terror states and the terror organizations formed an axis of hatred against the United States.»

Frum tells that he then sent off a memo with the above arguments and also cited some of the atrocities perpetrated by the Iraqi government. He expected his words to be chopped apart and altered beyond recognition, as is the fate of much presidential speechwriting, but his words were ultimately read by Bush nearly verbatim, though Bush changed the term axis of hatred to axis of evil. North Korea was added to the list, he says, because it was attempting to develop nuclear weapons, had a history of reckless aggression, and «needed to feel a stronger hand». [2]

Afterwards, Frum’s wife disclosed his authorship to the public. [3]

Yossef Bodansky

A decade before the 2002 State of the Union address, in August 1992, the political scientist Yossef Bodansky wrote a paper entitled «Tehran, Baghdad & Damascus: The New Axis Pact» [4] while serving as the Director of the Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare of the US House of Representatives. Although he did not explicitly apply the epithet evil to his New Axis, Bodansky’s axis was otherwise very reminiscent of Frum’s axis. Bodansky felt that this new Axis was a very dangerous development. The gist of Bodansky’s argument was that Iran, Iraq and Syria had formed a «tripartite alliance» in the wake of the First Gulf War, and that this alliance posed an imminent threat that could only be dealt with by invading Iraq a second time and overthrowing Saddam Hussein.

Development

Bolton: «Beyond the Axis of Evil»

This article does not contain any citations or references. Please improve this article by adding a reference. For information about how to add references, see Template:Citation.

Rice: Outposts of Tyranny

Criticism

No coordination

One criticism is that unlike the Axis powers, the three nations mentioned in Bush’s speech did not coordinate public policy, and therefore the term axis is incorrect. Also, while the Axis Powers of the Second World War signed diplomatic treaties with one another, such as the Pact of Steel and the Tripartite Pact, that created a military alliance between them, none of the nations that make up the «axis of evil» have taken similar steps publicly, nor are they known to have done so secretly according to present intelligence records. [ citation needed ]

No category

In addition, Iran and Iraq fought the long Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s, under basically the same leadership as that which existed at the time of Bush’s speech, leading some to believe that the linking of the nations under the same banner was misguided. Others argued that each of the three nations in the «axis of evil» had some special characteristics which were obscured by grouping them together. Anne Applebaum wrote about the debate over North Korea’s inclusion in the group. [5]

Effect on U.S.–Iran relations

In the days after the 9/11 attacks, Crocker and other senior U.S. State Department officials flew to Geneva to meet secretly with representatives of the government of Iran. For several months, Crocker and his Iranian counterparts cooperated on capturing Al Qaeda operatives in the region and fighting the Taliban government in Afghanistan. These meetings stopped after the «Axis of Evil» speech hardened Iranian attitudes toward cooperating with the U.S. [6]

Other axes

Axis of terror

In January 2006, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz implicated «the axis of terror that operates between Iran and Syria» following a suicide bomb in Tel Aviv. [7]

Axis of belligerence

Axis of good

The former president of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, described the so-called New Latin Left as an «axis of good» comprising Bolivia, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Uruguay and Venezuela (all countries now governed by leftist political leaders) and instead «Washington and its allies» as an «axis of evil». [11]

Axis of diesel

The Economist referred to an article about the term apparently used more often in reference to a burgeoning alliance of Iran, Russia, and Venezuela. They cite the billions of dollars in arms sales to Venezuela and the construction of Iranian nuclear facilities as well as the rejection of added sanctions on Iran. They did conclude that the benefits of the arrangement were exaggerated, however. [12]

Axis of environmental evil

Media use

Parodies

The Economist, May 11, 2006

Various related pun phrases include:

The term has also lent itself to various parodies, including the following:

Bill Bailey

British Comedian Bill Bailey also referred to the Axis of Evil in his Part Troll tour. He queried whether it was possible to assume a non-evil role within a terrorist organisation, possibly in the laundry or catering department. He then went on to pretend that he was the receptionist for the Axis of Evil. Imagining he was answering the phone, Bill Bailey says to the audience, «Hello, Axis of Evil. Oh no, they’re all out at the moment. Oh, I don’t know. Doing something evil I suppose». Placing the «caller» on hold, he then played a short jingle for the «Axis of Evil Pension Scheme».

Comedy Tour

Lullabies

In 2003 the Norwegian record label Kirkelig Kulturverksted published the CD Lullabies from the Axis of Evil containing 14 lullabies from Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan and Cuba. Every lullaby is presented in its original form sung by women from these countries, and then a western version with interpretations in English. [18]

Words Without Borders

Other

Cosmology

Axis of evil

Definition

President Bush’s exact statement was as follows:

Quotation| [Our second goal] is to prevent regimes (terrorist) that sponsor terror from threatening America or our friends and allies with weapons of mass destruction. Some of these regimes have been pretty quiet since September the 11th. But we know their true nature. North Korea is a regime arming with missiles and weapons of mass destruction, while starving its citizens.

Iran aggressively pursues these weapons and exports terror, while an unelected few repress the Iranian people’s hope for freedom.

Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade. This is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens—leaving the bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children. This is a regime that agreed to international inspections—then kicked out the inspectors. This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world.

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.| George W. Bush | [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020129-11.html 2002 State of Union Address] |

Origins

Yossef Bodansky

David Frum

Frum tells that he then sent off a memo with the above arguments and also cited some of the atrocities perpetrated by the Iraqi government. He expected his words to be chopped apart and altered beyond recognition, as is the fate of much presidential speechwriting, but his words were ultimately read by Bush nearly verbatim, though Bush changed the term «axis of hatred» to «axis of evil». North Korea was added to the list, he says, because it was attempting to develop nuclear weapons, had a history of reckless aggression, and «needed to feel a stronger hand.» [ [http://www.slate.com/id/2076552/ «Axis of Evil» Authorship Settled! It was Frum and Gerson, and definitely not Bush.] Jan. 9, 2003]

Development

Bolton: «Beyond the Axis of Evil»

Rice: Outposts of Tyranny

Criticism of the term

No coordination

No category

In addition, Iran and Iraq fought the long, bloody Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s, under basically the same leadership as that which existed at the time of Bush’s speech leading some to believe the linking between the nations under the same banner as misguided. Others argue that each of the three have some special characteristics which are obscured by grouping them together. Anne Applebaum has written about the debate over North Korea’s inclusion in the group. cite web
title=North Korea: Threat or Menace?
author=Anne Applebaum
url=http://www.slate.com/id/2061973/
publisher= [http://www.stlate.com/ Slate]
publishdate=2002-02-12
accessdate=2007-05-22]

No facts

Furthermore, other information Bush cited in his state of the union address — primarily dealing with Iraq and its alleged weapons of mass destruction and terror ties — have been labeled false by Senate-appointed committee investigations. cite web
title=Iraq’s Alleged Al-Qaeda TiesWere Disputed Before War
author=Jonathon Weisman
url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/08/AR2006090800777.html
publisher= [http://www.washingtonpost.com/ Washington Post]
date=2006-09-09
accessdate=2007-05-22]

Other Axes

Axis of the willing

By analogy to «axis of evil», the term «axis of the willing» has occasionally been applied to the coalition of the willing (for countries that participated in the 2003 invasion of Iraq ).

Axis of terror

United States, United Kingdom, and Israel

Among his other speeches, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi the chief commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran has spoken of a «true axis of evil» consisting of the United States, the United Kingdom and Israel.

New Latin Left

In Media

Parodies

tar Wars

Bill Bailey

British Comedian Bill Bailey also referred to the Axis of Evil in his Part Troll tour. He queried whether it was possible to have a non-evil position within a terrorist organisation, going on to pretend that he was the receptionist for the Axis of Evil, and he was sorry ‘they were all out at the moment, doing something evil I suppose’. Placing the ‘caller’ on hold, he then played a short jingle for the ‘Axis of Evil Caterers’ and ‘Axis of Evil Pension Plan’.

Comedy Tour

Lullabies

In 2003 the Norwegian record label Kirkelig Kulturverksted published the CD » Lullabies from the Axis of Evil » containing 14 lullabies from Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan and Cuba. Every lullaby is presented in its original form sung by women from these countries, and then a western version with interpretations in English. cite web
url=http://www.elance.no/kkv/asp/hoved.asp?show=musikk_eng
author=Erik Hillestad
publisher=Kirkelig Kulturverksted
title=?
accessdate=2007-05-22]

Words Without Borders

In 2007 the online magazine » Words Without Borders » published its first anthology titled Literature From The «Axis of Evil». The anthology contains works from Syria, Cuba, Libya, Sudan, Iran, Iraq and North Korea. The works included are typically non-political in nature, and are intended to further a human understanding of life inside the countries designated as part of the «Axis.» It should be noted that Sudan (included in the anthology) has never been given an «Axis» or «Beyond the Axis» designation by proponents of the terms.

Other

*» Holidays in the Axis of Evil » is a documentary by BBC.
* is a direct to video film.
*Empire of Evil (documentary film)
* comedy film

In cosmology

ee also

* Great Satan
* State Sponsors of Terrorism
* Political usages of the term evil

References

North Korea removed from the US ‘axis of evil’ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article4218320.ece

External links

Look at other dictionaries:

Axis of Evil — (engl. „Achse des Bösen“) steht für: Achse des Bösen, ein von George W. Bush geprägtes politisches Schlagwort Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, eine US amerikanische Stand Up Comedy Tour Axis of Evil (Film), eine französisch amerikanische Filmproduktion… … Deutsch Wikipedia

Axis of Evil (film) — Axis of Evil is a 2004 France Canada co production by Pascal Lievre about a couple declaring their love for each other with the same words United States President George W. Bush used to announce a war on terrorism. cite journal first =Etan last… … Wikipedia

Axis of Evil Comedy Tour — The Axis of Evil Comedy Tour is a stand up comedy tour featuring Middle Eastern comedians Ahmed Ahmed, Aron Kader and Maz Jobrani, with special guest Dean Obeidallah. The Tour started in November of 2005, and was named after George W. Bush… … Wikipedia

Axis of Evil (album) — Infobox Album Name = Axis of Evil Type = Studio Artist = Suicide Commando Released = 2003 Recorded = Genre = Aggrotech Length = Label = Producer = Johan Van Roy Reviews = Last album = Anthology (2002) This album = Axis of Evil (2003) Next album … Wikipedia

axis of evil — noun a) A group of states sponsoring terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction, originally defined as including Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. b) A preferential axis which may have shaped the development of the universe, sometimes… … Wiktionary

axis of evil — noun (sometimes upper case) a grouping of regimes that advance a shared cause by the use of terrorism, especially as used to refer to Iraq, Iran and North Korea by US president George W Bush.

Lullabies from the Axis of Evil — Infobox Album Name =Lullabies from the Axis of Evil Type = compilation Artist = Various Released = 2004 Recorded = 2002 2003 Genre = Lullabies Length = Label = Valley Entertainment Producer = Erik Hillestad Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|3|5… … Wikipedia

Lullabies from the Axis of Evil — (Berceuses des pays de l Axe du Mal) est une collection de berceuses traditionnelles chantées par des chanteuses d Irak, d Iran, de la Corée du Nord, de la Syrie, de la Libye, du Cuba, de l Afghanistan et de la Palestine, accompagnées en duo par… … Wikipédia en Français

Axis of Evil

Were you looking for the Axis Powers?

The «Axis of Evil» was a list of countries that George W. Bush had philosophical [1] and ideological differences with but has a problem coming up with legitimate reasons to resolve the differences by force. It was a short list of the usual suspects (Iran, Iraq, and North Korea), who had pretty much nothing to do with each other until they all ended up on the list. Later on Bolivia, Venezuela and Cuba declared themselves to be an «Axis of Good,» although this was probably tongue-in-cheek. The phrase was coined for Bush’s 2002 State of the Union address by White House speechwriter David Frum, who left to spend time with his family after his wife stole Bush’s thunder and e-mailed the Internet that David had written this glorious God-delivered phrase.

The «Axis of Evil» speech was a particularly effective bit of speechifying: it caused Iran to release «brutal» insurgent leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and send him back into Afghanistan to make trouble. [2] It also provided a convenient excuse for Kim Jong-il to restart his nuclear program. [3] Mission accomplished!

In cosmology [ edit ]

The «Axis of Evil» is also the nickname received by an asymmetry of the cosmic microwave background as studied by the WMAP and Planck missions. It’s not clear what it is: if mere data processing errors, proof of the universe having a doughnut-shaped form (Mmmmmm. ), or simply a pattern that is there because of our tendency to see those things everywhere. [4] Very recent (2016) studies of the expansion of the Universe, that show it to be uniform to the limit of measurements, show that the first and/or the last possibilities could be the most likely ones. [5]

Of course this «Axis of Evil» has been victim of cranks, who have used it to prove for example that Earth is the center of the Universe. Yeah, right. [6]

13 more things: The axis of evil

(Image: WMAP / NASA)

WHAT would you do if you found a mysterious and controversial pattern in the radiation left over from the big bang? In 2005, Kate Land and João Magueijo at Imperial College London faced just such a conundrum. What they did next was a PR master stroke: they called their discovery the cosmic “axis of evil“.

What exactly had they seen? Instead of finding hot and cold spots randomly spattered across the sky as they expected, the pair’s analysis showed that the spots in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) appeared to be aligned in one particular direction through space.

The apparent alignment is “evil” because it undermines what we thought we knew about the early universe. Modern cosmology is built on the assumption that the universe is essentially the same in whichever direction we look. If the cosmic radiation has a preferred direction, that assumption may have to go – along with our best theories about cosmic history.

Advertisement

This disaster might be averted if we can show that the axis arises from some oddity in the way our telescopes and satellites observe the radiation. A nearby supercluster of galaxies could also save the day: its gravitational pull might be enough to distort the radiation into the anomalous form seen.

Nobody knows for sure. We are dealing with the limits of our capabilities, says Michael Longo of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “All observations beyond our galaxy are obscured by the disc of the Milky Way,” he points out, so we need to be careful how we interpret them.

The European Space Agency’s recently launched Planck space telescope might settle the issue when it makes the most sensitive maps yet of the CMB. Until then, the axis of evil continues to terrorise us.