Why wasn't Syria placed on the Axis of Evil?

[don_willard]

Why wasn’t Syria placed on the Axis of Evil?
I mean it might be added now, but why wasn’t it placed on this list before, when they knew what it was like even then and for a long time?

[Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor]

They fell behind on their payments to www.villainsupply.com for al the “knicknacks” they ordered, & officially got dropped from the Global Villiany Register.

[casdave]

Political expediency.

Syria was a crucial player in Lebanon and certain agreements about the recognition of Israels right to exist would not have been possible without it.

[paperbackwriter]

Actually, I think it was merely speechwriting. In speeches, lists often have three items. It’s a convention but it also makes the sentence “flow better”. They needed to put two more countries on the list with Iraq, and Iran and North Korea made the cut. David Frum, the speechwriter who wrote that State of the Union address where it was first used, describes the experience in a new book

The phrase Frum comes up with is “axis of hatred”, describing the ominous but ill-defined links between Iraq and terrorism. It is Gerson who tweaks the phrase into the “axis of evil”, to make it sound more “theological”.
“I thought that was terrific,” Frum says. “It was the sort of language President Bush used.”
The national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice and her deputy, Stephen Hadley, then add Iran on the grounds that denouncing the ruling theocracy might accelerate the incipient revolt they see emerging in the street protests. Why North Korea gets tacked on to the axis is not clear in the book - although Pyongyang’s presence does bring the number of miscreants up to the magic number three, and ensures the list is not entirely Islamic.

[dtilque]

This article here ANGERED BY SNUBBING, LIBYA, CHINA, SYRIA FORM AXIS OF JUST AS EVIL explains everything.