Anna Quindlen -- The Axis of Re-Election

This isn't anything new. It just typifies the reaction of the press and "intellectuals" around the world to the phrase "axis of evil" in President Bush's State of the Union speech. What is interesting is that so many people have gone weak-kneed over a few words, as though those three words were equivalent to launching a nuclear attack.

People who write and read for a living tend to think every word can be deconstructed to reveal some truth available to them only, and they often miss the plain facts by focusing on such details.

The Axis of Evil line was a shot across the bows of three countries who are lending support to terrorists by providing weapons and working to build bioweapons and nuclear weapons that could easily find their ways into the hands of groups like Al Qaeda. It was intended to let them know that we know what they're up to and that they're playing a dangerous game. That's all.

And it has accomplished that purpose. But to the subtlety squad, every word has cosmic implications, and that word "evil" is just so stark, so judgmental, so black & white and so, well, so plain that it is bad literature. It offends their aesthetic sensibilities, which, of course, are the basis of their politics and views on foreign policy.