After the Iraq invasion and the subsequent fall-out from that war, the Bush administration abandoned its unilateral effort and opted to engage the remaining members of that axis — Iran and North Korea — on a multilateral basis.
Fast forward to 2011 and into 2012, the post-Kim Jong Il era in North Korea. I would say the world today is a much more dangerous place because of the erroneous policy decision to take out the weak link in that Axis of Evil, Iraq, while the world’s major sponsor of terrorism, Iran, and the world’s major source of instability, The Democratic Peoples’ Republic of Korea, “remain at large.” Both nations, of course, consider long-time U.S. ally Pakistan as their close partner in their efforts to destabilize other nations; in North Korea’s case, South Korea and Japan, and in Iran’s case, Israel. Both nations also have one other thing in common: their alliances with the People’s Republic of China and Russia, two nations which sit on the U.N. Security Council with veto power.
With the geo-political landscape a much more complicated one than it was during the Cold War period, where enemies were clearly delineated, the U.S. finds itself reviving and rebuilding friendships with nations in and around the Pacific Rim in the hopes that they, America, will be able to check not only the rise of China, but also neutralize the remaining axis of evil members, Iran and DPRK.
I can see a period of unprecedented peace and prosperity for the billions of people who call this part of the world home, including Guam, if the United States, together with its allies, can bring about a change of deeply unpopular regimes in both the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Democratic Republic of North Korea. This then would send an unmistakable message to Beijing that freedom and universal human rights are virtues that cannot be stymied through a state-run apparatus that seeks to control every aspect of life for the Chinese citizen. The prospect of giving up some prosperity now for the sake of freedom for the people of Iran and North Korea, and to a certain extent, China, is well-worth it in the long run, I would argue, because even more prosperity would ensue as they will be turning weapons of war into weapons of productive economic growth.
MATT PHILIPS
Mangilao, Guam
