Did Al Gore have what it takes to be President?

[Razgovory]

In order to understate, seriously or otherwise, what they did before inspecting their minibars, I would first have to state it.

You said they could not leave their hotels which wasn't true.

[Razgovory]

Not sure why a chemical weapon program mandated an attack anyway. Iraq was less of a threat than in 1990/1991. The administration knew that--as evidenced by a much more rapid ground war in Gulf War II.

Collective stupidity/naivete.

Ideology/ambition.  Bush was swayed by the arguments of those who felt that 1991 was a missed opportunity to create a model democracy that would inspire democratic reforms (or revolutions) in across the region bring with it peace in the Middle East.  Weapon inspections were just a casus belli, a foot in the door.  Since Gore would be unlikely to hire Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz their ambitious plans to transform the Middle East would probably not influence the President.  On the other hand, Gore doesn't seem to be the most stable individual so who knows what he would have done after 9/11.

[DGuller]

Invading Iraq was a mostly bad idea, but it had large bi-partisan support.

Technically true, but somewhat out of context.  The nation was put on the warpath, and Democrats for the most part did not have the balls to be publicly at odds with jingoism.  Even in democratic countries, when the nation is primed for war, you have a terrible political environment where taking a principled stand carries real serious dangers.  So just because Democrats didn't have the balls to resist the push to war doesn't mean they would be starting the war if they were in power.

[Eddie Teach]

Bush was swayed by the arguments of those who felt that 1991 was a missed opportunity to create a model democracy that would inspire democratic reforms (or revolutions) in across the region bring with it peace in the Middle East.

Which has proven to be incredibly naive.

[Razgovory]

Bush was swayed by the arguments of those who felt that 1991 was a missed opportunity to create a model democracy that would inspire democratic reforms (or revolutions) in across the region bring with it peace in the Middle East.

Which has proven to be incredibly naive.

Well, I agree on that part.

[KRonn]

Invading Iraq was a mostly bad idea, but it had large bi-partisan support.

Technically true, but somewhat out of context.  The nation was put on the warpath, and Democrats for the most part did not have the balls to be publicly at odds with jingoism.  Even in democratic countries, when the nation is primed for war, you have a terrible political environment where taking a principled stand carries real serious dangers.  So just because Democrats didn't have the balls to resist the push to war doesn't mean they would be starting the war if they were in power.

Agreed, there was some of this attitude going on, too much actually IMO. On top of that people who were critical were getting lambasted, some musicians were having their CDs publicly destroyed, and that kind of thing. I hated that stuff going on, as it clouded the debate.

[MadImmortalMan]

Afghanistan, yes.  Iraq?  I doubt it.

Iraq was going to happen. 700 violations of the no fly zones? Come on. Clinton almost restarted the Iraq war. It was inevitable.

[frunk]

Iraq was going to happen. 700 violations of the no fly zones? Come on. Clinton almost restarted the Iraq war. It was inevitable.

A full scale invasion over no fly zone violations?  Right.  I could see some sort of limited action at some point, but not anything on the scale of the Iraq War.

[Admiral Yi]

You said they could not leave their hotels which wasn't true.

I said they were restricted to their hotel at the time they decided to leave.  If you have evidence that that is not true, I'd love to see it.

[Razgovory]

You said they could not leave their hotels which wasn't true.

I said they were restricted to their hotel at the time they decided to leave.  If you have evidence that that is not true, I'd love to see it.

Well, logically they had to leave the hotel to leave the country.

[Razgovory]

Iraq was going to happen. 700 violations of the no fly zones? Come on. Clinton almost restarted the Iraq war. It was inevitable.

A full scale invasion over no fly zone violations?  Right.  I could see some sort of limited action at some point, but not anything on the scale of the Iraq War.

There already was limited action.  We saw limited action for a decade.  There is no reason to believe it would escalate further.  By the same reasoning of MiM a Korean war is also inevitable, since the North Koreans violated the cease fire many times.  Despite that nobody has seems to have much interest in starting up a new war with the North Koreans.

[Siege]

If Al Gore had been elected, we'd have lunar colonies and flying cars by now.

No. We would have a nuclear Iran, a unravelled Middle East, sharia law growing everywhere, an stronger Al Qaida, etc.

Oh wait...

[Siege]

And by the way, tech development would have been slower under Al Gore because of his "progressive" taxation against energy.
Energy = Industrial development = Tech development

[grumbler]

You said they could not leave their hotels which wasn't true.

I said they were restricted to their hotel at the time they decided to leave.  If you have evidence that that is not true, I'd love to see it.

  I can't believe you are falling for this again!

[jimmy olsen]

And by the way, tech development would have been slower under Al Gore because of his "progressive" taxation against energy.
Energy = Industrial development = Tech development

But Al Gore invented the internet!