Editing Axis of evil (section)

===David Frum===
The phrase was attributed to former Bush pro-Israel speechwriter [[David Frum]], originally as the ''axis of hatred'' and then ''evil''. Information about his authorship first came out when emails of Frum's wife to friends were picked up by the media.<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/bush/story/0,7369,658724,00.html "Proud wife turns 'axis of evil' speech into a resignation letter"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211110170237/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/feb/27/usa.matthewengel |date=November 10, 2021 }}, Matthew Engel, ''[[The Guardian]]'', February 27, 2002</ref> Frum explained his rationale for creating the phrase ''axis of evil'' in his 2003 book ''The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush.''<ref>{{Cite news |last=Borger |first=Julian |date=January 28, 2003 |title=How I created the axis of evil |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/jan/28/usa.iran |access-date=August 20, 2024 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> According to Frum, in late December 2001 head speechwriter [[Michael Gerson]] gave him the assignment of articulating the case for dislodging the regime of [[Saddam Hussein]] in Iraq in only a few sentences for the upcoming State of the Union address. Frum says he began by rereading President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s [[Infamy Speech|"date which will live in infamy"]] speech given on December 8, 1941, after the [[Empire of Japan|Japanese]] surprise [[attack on Pearl Harbor]]. While Americans needed no convincing about going to war with Japan, Roosevelt saw the greater threat to the United States coming from [[Nazi Germany]], and he had to make the case for fighting a two-ocean war.

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 [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|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".<ref>[http://www.slate.com/id/2076552/ "Axis of Evil" Authorship Settled! It was Frum and Gerson, and definitely not Bush.] January 9, 2003. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080206045806/http://www.slate.com/id/2076552/|date=February 6, 2008}}</ref>