Precisely Dan.

The link was not just one of terrorist states but were linked in their D-egree of hatred of the US.

North Korea has been brazenly working on building nuclear weapons - as has Iraq and Iran.

The fact of the matter is, all these nations would not hesitate to use nuclear weapons on the US if they could do so and not be discovered.

Unlike the planes which left literally a paper trail as to the identities of the terrorists, a stealth nuclear attack upon our cities would be infinitely harder to identify the culprit(s).

So since all three of these nations are opposed to the US and seeking weapons of mass destruction - just like Germany, Italy,and Japan were during WWII - the 'axis' analogy is vary appropo.

Our worst Secretary of State ever, Madeline Albright, has made a point to criticize the analogy - which is not surprising.

The President's budget will fortify our military, covert operations and intelligence gathering and make our enemies think twice when they know we will simply go in after them without hesitation - no matter where they think they can hide.

For the terrorists a new dawn has arrived. The States that harbored them are just as willing to sell them down the river for the promise of improved relations with the US. (translated as big $$$)

So now they dig deeper underground and now...we will finally have more middle-eastern agents speaking native dialects which can infiltrate these groups with greater success - no doubt adding to their hesitancy to trust each other or new recruits.

Working alongside Russia for a change also means that our own double agents (You can bet that there is more than one within our intelligence agencies and the Defense and State department) will have little to gain by thwarting an operation or getting agents killed.

Putin, is on a roll. The Russian economy is thriving (relatively-speaking) since upping oil production and the increased foreign money coming in to Russia.

He badly wants Russia to be a superpower again - and the best way to do that is to align itself with the US. He is also strengthening his cult of personality - so that he can wield more power and suppress or limit the activities of the Russian mafia which are now as powerful and untouchable as Capone was in the thirties.

Think about this...

Russia knows a LOT about North Korea. They have many operatives still active in and around this region. Putin can gain a lot of points by revealing some juicy tidbits and other things to us ;-)

(Which is also why N. Korea is so paranoid about the US declaring war upon them.)

These things and others might have led to North Korea's inclusion in the Evil Axis.

Take care Dan,

SDAI-Tech1