The International Herald Leader, under Xinhua, recently published an article discussing the fact that Foreign Policy Magazine is now grouping Venezuela, Iran and Russia into a new acronym, “VIRUS.” Foreign Policy believes these countries are a threat to the U.S. and the entire order of the West.
The author of the International Herald Leader article suggested that the U.S. is fond of labeling other countries, such as the “Axis of Evil” label that the earlier administration came up with. However the author thought the U.S. is only pretending to have moral superiority because the label “Totalitarian Dictatorship” does not apply to Saudi Arabia and “Democratic Bridgehead” won’t apply to democratically elected Hamas. The article concluded that the labels may reflect U.S. policy directions, and that some of them are worth monitoring.
Source: Xinhua, April 22, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2010-04/22/content_13402389.htm