More articles of faith from the elite press, the AP no less (emphasis mine):
The three countries President Bush called an "axis of evil" in his first term are at the top of his foreign policy to-do list in the second, along with a revitalized Mideast peace process and continued efforts to repair European alliances frayed by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
Was it that? Or were alliances frayed when two long-standing European allies joined a statist Moscow and fascist Beijing in refusing to hold Saddam Hussein accountable for his myriad crimes against humanity, wholesale looting of humanitarian monies surpassing $20 billion, and defiance of the ceasefire agreement following his 1991 military defeat — while deepening grey and black market ties to Ba'athist Baghdad? Let's hope history brushes aside leftist rhetoric.