“Our nation will continue to be steadfast, and patient and persistent in the pursuit of two great objectives. First, we will shut down terrorist camps, disrupt terrorist plans and bring terrorists to justice. And second, we must prevent the terrorists and regimes who seek chemical, biological or nuclear weapons from threatening the United States and the world….Our second goal is to prevent regimes that sponsor terror from threatening America or our friends and allies with weapons of mass destruction….States like these [North Korea, Iran, and Iraq], and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger….And all nations should know: America will do what is necessary to ensure our nation's security.” President George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, January 2002

The sentiments expressed in the excerpt above most directly contributed to which of the following?

A
A national sense that the Cold War was finally over

B
U. S. peacekeeping missions in Latin America, Asia and Africa

C
Debates about the merits of a “military–industrial complex”

D
The U. S.-led invasion of Iraq