<

GUEST EDITORIAL: The Gore Speech
Wednesday, September 25, 2002
Scripps Howard News Service

A fierce attack on President George W. Bush's Iraq policy issued by former Vice President Al Gore [Tue, Sep 24, 2002, 2:32 PM ET] could help galvanize U.S. opposition to a new Gulf war while serving as a launching pad for Gore's probable 2004 presidential campaign, analysts said September 24, 2002. In a speech on Sept. 23 in San Francisco, Gore, seen delivering the keynote address at the annual Jefferson Jackson Dinner held by the Iowa Democratic Party in Des Moines on September 29, 2001, laid out a scathing critique of Bush's Iraq policy.
Image Credit: Jeff Mitchell -- Reuters.

It's true that as it confronts terrorism in the world, the United States must work as closely as it can with as many allies as it can bring together, but it cannot be ruled by the timidity of others. It must lead not just by negotiations behind the scenes, but by action. In its own interests, it must step forward.

Finish up the war on terrorism and don't worry about Iraq, at least not yet, and certainly not until much of the rest of the world has lined up with you, says Al Gore. Several questions come to mind, one of them being why it is that he thinks a war on Iraq is discontinuous with a war on terrorism.

It would not be, of course.

The lesson of Sept. 11 was not that the United States must wreak revenge against al Qaeda but that it must protect itself against fanatics who would visit catastrophe on the American people. Saddam Hussein, who deals with terrorists and is amassing weapons of mass destruction, has shown by word and deed that he would happily arrange for the deployment of those weapons against us if he could get away with it. Gore, who has acknowledged the man is an evil threat, says the threat is not immediate. The logic of that argument is that the administration should wait until the threat (ital) is (endital) immediate. This is not what is known as sound thinking.
(More: The Naples Daily News Source)
2002 © Scripps Howard News Service.

Dan