ANALYSIS:
Bush says 'nexus of evil' is Iraq


Posted 10:45 p.m. Updated: 11:03 p.m., Tuesday

By CHUCK RAASCH
GNS Political Writer

WASHINGTON — From the axis of evil to the Iraq of evil, there was no doubt Tuesday night where President Bush’s war on terrorism is now focused.

In a speech that the White House had touted as half domestic, half global, Bush set a deadline for what might be the crucial showdown with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, putting the conflict in the hands of the United Nations with a promised Feb. 5 show-the-evidence assembly in New York.

It was not a speech for anyone seeking comfort, and it came at a moment of rising doubts here and abroad. Although Bush asserted that the United States was winning the war on terrorism, the president recited a litany of biological, chemical and nuclear horrors that could fall in the hands of terrorists. And Iraq under Saddam, Bush said, has dabbled in many of them.

In essence, the “axis of evil” has become the “nexus of evil.”

Repeating familiar themes, Bush also accused the Iraqi regime of mutilation, torture and rape of its own citizens.
“If this is not evil,” he said, “then evil has no meaning.”
Iraq claims it has no weapons of mass destruction and has cooperated with U.N. inspectors.

In his State of the Union address a year ago, Bush’s “axis of evil” declaration on Iraq, Iran and North Korea redefined global conflict in one stark moment. The rhetoric clarified Bush’s views of the world but unsettled many allies, especially in Europe.

The year since brought a constant calendar of terrorist alerts, arrests and attacks around the globe, but none on the scale of the terrorism of Sept. 11, 2001. But a U.N.-based coalition that confronted Iraq in the fall recently has begun to unravel over questions about whether war is necessary to stand down Saddam and his alleged arsenal of biological and chemical weapons.

Tuesday night, Bush used language every bit as confrontational as he did a year ago, but he focused it primarily on Iraq. He cast North Korea and Iran in less harsh light - and Iraq as the clear and present danger.

Iran, Bush said, is still ruled by a repressive government, but its people are straining for “liberty, human rights and democracy.”

North Korea, which has played a dangerous game of nuclear threat in the last month, was described as another “oppressive regime” that could still “find respect in the world” if it abandoned its nuclear ambitions, Bush said.

No such quarter was allowed Saddam, who Bush called a “brutal dictator.”

In almost any other time, in any other light, Bush’s domestic policy initiatives - deeper tax cuts, $400 billion to provide prescription drugs for seniors, environmental innovation, energy independence and a new initiative to help children of prison inmates - would have been top-of-the-page news.

But despite the White House’s attempts to showcase Bush’s domestic agenda - and by extension, his political concern about the economy - the address was overwhelmed by the tougher rhetoric on Iraq.

“The dictator of Iraq is not disarming,” Bush said. “To the contrary, he is deceiving.”

Bush sounded confident and measured, but his language sometimes gave broader hints of the threats he said he hears every morning in national security briefings.

He said the United States will “answer every danger” - a different response than repelling every attack. Some in his administration have long warned of the likelihood of further terrorist attacks on American soil.

Bush entered the speech in a more precarious position than a year ago.

In the latest USA TODAY-CNN-Gallup Poll, taken Jan. 23-25, his job approval ratings sat at a respectable 60 percent. But only 46 percent approved of his economic record, compared with 64 percent a year ago. Only 49 percent said he was leading the country in the right direction, compared with 73 percent before his State of the Union speech last year.

A year ago, Bush had the stage all to himself as a shaken nation sought reassurance from a leader who had found his voice. But cacophony has returned to Washington. A half dozen Democrats are running for president against Bush, and any semblance of post-Sept. 11 unity is long gone.

“The state of the union is anxious,” Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said in a Monday “prebuttal” speech designed to beat Bush to the rhetorical punch.

Before his address, many Americans told pollsters they believed war with Iraq is inevitable, even necessary, but were split over whether Bush had made the case for war. In the USA TODAY-CNN-Gallup survey, 49 percent said he had, and 48 percent said he hadn’t. And support for a war with Iraq now had fallen to 52 percent, the lowest percentage in two years.

Only time will tell, perhaps between now and Feb. 5, whether Bush's speech moved people his way.