After the September 11 attacks on New York, Bush launched the War on Terror, in which the United States military and a small international coalition invaded Afghanistan. In his 2002 State of the Union Address, Bush referred to an 'axis of evil' consisting of Iraq, Iran and North Korea. In 2003, Bush then launched the invasion of Iraq, searching for weapons of mass destruction, which he described as being part of the War on Terrorism. Those invasions led to the toppling of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and the removal of Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. Main article: War on Terror. President Bush presenting former British Prime Minister Tony Blair with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, January 13, 2009.