“This troika of tyranny, this triangle of terror stretching from Havana to Caracas to Managua, is the cause of immense human suffering, the impetus of enormous regional instability, and the genesis of a sordid cradle of communism in the Western Hemisphere.” That was National Security Adviser John Bolton speaking last week in an address from Miami’s Freedom Tower, the 17-story building where Cuban refugees were processed after fleeing Fidel Castro’s regime. The three states he had in view were, of course, Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua.

“Troika of Tyranny” may lack the resonant felicity of George W. Bush’s “axis of evil,” but the reversal in policy captured by Bolton’s phrase is just as necessary as its predecessor. “Under this administration,” Bolton said, “we will no longer appease dictators and despots near our shores in this Hemisphere.”