A rogue country is one which does not comply with the standards and rules of civil conduct. President George W. Bush in his January 29, 2002 State of the Union speech cited Iran, Iraq, and North Korea as the Axis of Evil. In addition to those three he had a list of three other countries which he thought of as pariah countries. Those are, or were, Cuba, Libya, and Syria.

            Today Iraq should be dropped from the Axis and replaced by Russia. We know some of Russia’s evil activities. The destruction of the Ukraine is the current news lead but Russia has done the same to Chechnya in 1999 and 2000. They literally destroyed cities. Russia has sliced off part of Georgia and the Crimea from the Ukraine. Russia just announced it has annexed about a fifth of Eastern Ukraine.

            To secure Russia’s place in the new Axis of Evil, Russia is buying weapons from Iran and North Korea. Putin has locked in Russia to Iran and North Korea while a few other pariah countries have been careful not to criticize Russia while getting Russian food aid. With Russia’s seat on the Security Council, Putin can protect Iran and North Korea from the United Nations actions to rein in their rogue nation actions.