The Axis of Evil

Blog#227- 12/25/24

THE AXIS OF EVIL
By
Richard Davis

There are a lot of evil, power-intoxicated people ruling countries all over the world. With the imminent ascension of a new evil person in our own country I was prompted to do some research to see if my fears of a world dominated by dictators and oligarchs might be closer to reality than most people realize.

Consider this. According to the United States Institute of Leadership and Diplomacy, “There are currently 49 dictatorships and authoritarian regimes in the world (21 in Africa, 18 in Asia, 7 in the Middle East, 1 in Europe and 2 in Americas). We define a dictator as the ruler of a land rated “Not Free” by the Freedom House in their annual survey of freedom.” That number was reduced to 48 with the fall of Assad in Syria, but who knows what kind of government will replace him?

The list includes Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Vietnam, Yemen, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Cuba. Sure, there are more countries where people are free and where their leaders respect the rule of law and the rights of individuals to lead the kind of lives they want. But it seems to me that the list of dictatorships has been growing.

Students of history, of which I am not one, might point out that this situation has been around for a long time and that it is nothing new for there to be 48 dictatorships. But what worries me is that it seems that these dictators are asserting their authority beyond their borders.

Leaders who need more and more power to satisfy their egos will eventually not be satisfied to only control their own country. They often become delusional and believe that their power is absolute and that if they build up a big enough military that they may eventually gain control of parts of the world beyond their borders.

We only have to reflect on people like Hitler and the other would-be world conquerors who preceded him.

Russia’s Putin is a slow burn version of Hitler. He is doing many of the evil things that Hitler did, but on a smaller scale. Instead of engaging in an all-out world war he is slowly chipping away at the map in his corner of the world by annexing Crimea and now trying to make Ukraine part of Russia. The fact that he is soliciting the help of North Korea and China to feed his ego and support his lust for power is one of the most troubling developments in recent years.

The rest of the world is powerless to stop these countries from their power and land grabs and one has to wonder what might happen beyond the war in Ukraine.

Will Russian, China and North Korea form a military alliance that starts World War III? It is not inconceivable that these countries are already planning to move in that direction.

The United Nations, the European Union, the World Court and other international institutions will be nearly powerless to stop the aggression of this new axis of evil. Are people in our military looking at this bigger picture? Are they as worried as I am about how close we might be to all out world war?

Then comes our new American leader who is also intoxicated by the power he will wield. He admires the leaders of Russian, China and North Korea because he has the same ambitions as they. Will the United States become a part of this new axis of evil in the months after January 20? Will the American president try to destroy the constitution so he can rule for as long as he wants, the way his heroes do? When Trump’s term is up I think there is a strong possibility that he will not leave office and that he will resort to a violent coup. I hope I am wrong, but he may build strong enough relationships with the new axis of evil to make his dreams come true.