GORE VS. GORE:

Gore: Saddam must go (Jeff Phillips, 28 June, 2000, BBC)

US Vice-President Al Gore has told Iraqi opposition politicians that the United States remains committed to the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein.

"There can be no peace for the Middle East so long as Saddam is in a position to brutalise his people and threaten his neighbours."

Meeting a delegation from the Iraqi National Congress (INC), he also reiterated the administration's view that the Iraqi leader should be tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Transcript: Iraq and the War On Terrorism (Al Gore, September 23rd, 2002)

I believe, therefore, that the resolution that the President has asked Congress to pass is much too broad in the authorities it grants, and needs to be narrowed. The President should be authorized to take action to deal with Saddam Hussein as being in material breach of the terms of the truce and therefore a continuing threat to the security of the region. To this should be added that his continued pursuit of weapons of mass destruction is potentially a threat to the vital interests of the United States. But Congress should also urge the President to make every effort to obtain a fresh demand from the Security Council for prompt, unconditional compliance by Iraq within a definite period of time. If the Council will not provide such
language, then other choices remain open, but in any event the President should be urged to take the time to assemble the broadest possible international support for his course of action. Anticipating that the President will still move toward unilateral action, the Congress should establish now what the administration’s thinking is regarding the aftermath of a US attack for the purpose of regime change.

The Arabs have a saying for the kind of thinking that transforms a brutal "war criminal" into merely a potential threat: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Would that Al Gore and his ilk could get past their hatred of George W. Bush and return to clear thinking about our real enemies, the dictators of the Islamic world. Posted by Orrin Judd at September 24, 2002 12:30 AM