Kesher Talk

When confronting evil, clarity is a virtue: So admits National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice in USA Today (Feb. 19).

Meanwhile, according to Michael Novak, "President Bush laid down the gauntlet--All you so-called relativists and nonjudgmentalists out there: Tell me how these guys aren't evil. Tell me how they just need "therapy." His words are still hanging out there as a dare. No one has picked them up. But you can bet your life somebody will. And whoever does will get laughed off the air. The moral framework of discussion has changed."

On the "the sound byte that will go down in history," Jackson Murphy notes, "The recognition that these nations are an axis of evil is the equivalent of President Reagan's demand: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!" These words and "the axis of evil" speech are about two things: challenging others and providing leadership."

Is the axis evil? Jack Spencer says, you betcha (NY Post, Feb. 13).

The objections of other nations and pundits, according to Claudia Rosett, "may be interesting and fun to discuss. But... The wording that lingers, the phrase that now evokes the discussion and frames the debate, is none of the elaborate reaction.... It is Mr. Bush's "axis of evil." And with that, Mr. Bush has advanced us all some valuable distance toward a clearer set of rules about what will be tolerated in the New World Order, and what won't. "

posted by Howard @ 2/21/2002 06:22:01 PM