Wag the axis of evil

Glenn Kessler and Peter Baker make a good point in the WP today: "Nearly five years after President Bush introduced the concept of an 'axis of evil' comprising Iraq, Iran and North Korea, the administration has reached a crisis point with each nation." The article analyzes how the U.S.'s relations with any one of the axis countries tend to impact its relations with the other two. That's interesting, but here's an analysis I want to see:

Is the blossoming of the axis of evil in the last five years more an indication of the Bush administration's prescience, or of its commitment to follow through on its own long-held plans for balls-out nation-building? Was the axis of evil speech a self-fulfilling prophecy or self-fulfilling propaganda? It's unclear to me how much influence or control the administration has really had over North Korea's nuclear ambitions. But it's by no means certain that Iraq would have exploded/imploded had the U.S. never invaded. And the hamfisted occupation of Iraq has almost certainly played a role in Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad's stewing homicidal rage. So I say, that makes the Bush administration itself the agent of crisis in at least 2 of the 3 axis of evil nations.

There are those--including, reportedly, Bush himself--who see the invasion of Iraq as part of our divinely foreordained march towards the Apocalypse. (Alternet) Perhaps it's true and the President is an instrument of the Lord. Y'know, my mother always said, "God helps those who help themselves."