It made me laugh.

Quote within quote:

Ignore for a moment the possibility that Gore's remarks may have been misrepresented by the author of this screed (as indeed they were). Assume that everything he claims about Gore's speech is correct. Even making that generous assumption, do any of you really believe that Gore's remarks, ill-considered or otherwise, to this audience in Saudi Arabia, justify arrest and imprisonment for exercising his first amendment right to free speech? We've seen far worse from noted right wing pundits like Ann Coulter, who suggested that someone should poison a sitting associate justice of the Supreme Court. Yet Gore's comments, in their minds, deserve arrest and imprisonment? Why? Well, here's their answer to you:

Under the Espionage Act of 1917, opponents of World War I were routinely prosecuted, and the Supreme Court routinely upheld their convictions. Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes rightly wrote, "When a nation is at war, many things that might be said in time of peace are such a hindrance to its effort that their utterance will not be endured so long as men fight and that no Court could regard them as protected by any constitutional right." The Allies won World War I.

During World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt authorized the internment of hundreds of thousands of Japanese-Americans, as well as allowing the prosecution and/or deportation of those who opposed the war. The Allies won World War II.

During the Vietnam War, the Supreme Court repeatedly upheld the free speech rights of war opponents, whether those opponents distributed leaflets depicting the rape of the Statue of Liberty or wore jackets emblazoned with the slogan "F--- the Draft." America lost the Vietnam War.

You see? When America suppresses dissent it wins its wars, and when it doesn't it loses them.

To continue:

During the Civil War, the South experienced great patriotic feeling and almost no open dissent, whereas the North had draft riots and vicious attacks on President Lincoln appeared in the press. The South won the Civil War.

During the War of Independence, American colonists were divided on the question of independence, with only about one-third favoring independence, while one-third opposed it and another third took no side or took the side of the dominant military power in the region at the time (cf: Philadelphia). Disagreement was intense and often violent. The British forces in America, on the other hand, were unified and disciplined. America lost the War of Independence.

Oh. Oops.

We do tend to forget that the Allies in World War I fought to an exhausting stalemate long before the new troops and the industrial strength of the US entered the war in 1917. Dissent was not an issue: fatigue was.

We do tend to forget that the internment of Japanese-Americans had nothing to do with a non-existent great wave of dissent coming from that community, but had a great deal to do with racism. All those sneaky Orientals spying on us! Especially the children and babies!

We do tend to forget that the Vietcong had defeated the French before the Americans, and that the war continued disastrously for years before dissent became powerful enough for America to withdraw. We forget that South Vietnam had an army that folded like a bad poker player when the Americans left even though we had spent years "training" and equipping them. We forget that a relentless guerilla war by a relatively small but determined portion of the population was precisely what the American patriots waged against the British for the better part of the War of Independence.

The day we cede our right to speak our minds because of someone shouting "Sedition!" is the day we lose the real war. Ignorance and oppression can take over anywhere. As witness, the ignorance of history that leads our quoted speaker to urge oppression of his countrymen.