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on january 29, 2002, u s president george w bush, in his state of the union address, used the phrase “axis of evil” to describe the nations of iraq, iran, and north korea.
the events of september 11, 2001 had made a deep impression on johnny wilson. he felt that he had awakened from a dream , that america, and himself, were threatened on a daily basis by muslim terrorists who could strike at any time, and he sincerely wished he could do something about it.
johnny began having fantasies similar to joe’s during the vietnam war - of leaving his job and family and joining the navy seals or some other, secret, elite military force. johnny actually felt physically treatened by al qaeda, where joe had not really been afraid of the viet cong, only outraged by the peaceniks and hippies.
as he supervised the unloading of crates of television sets, hair dryers, bath towels, and peanut butter crackers, johnny imagined himself, a slimmed down, muscular, face blackened version of himself, confronting osama bin laden one on one in a moonlit desert, and delivering an arnold schwarzennegerish wisecrack to the fiend before blowing him to hell.
on the morning of june 12, johnny stopped at a burger king on his way to work. as he sat down with his coffee and breakfast sandwich, he thought he recognized the man at the next table. the man returned his gaze with a not unfriendly narrowing of the eyes. it was hank browning! - the man johnny’s first wife, sally, had left him for. it was quickly established that sally had been even quicker to dispose of hank than she had been of johnny, and the two men got into a conversation about something much more meaningful - osama bin laden and what to do about him.
on october 24, 41 year old john allen muhammad and 17 year lee boyd malvo were found sleeping in a car by the side of the road and arrested by maryland state police, as suspects in the random sniping murders of 17 people in the maryland - virginia - dc area. they would be tried and convicted of some of the killings, and muhammud would be executed in 2009.
40. 2003
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