Awkward? Bush meets Gore at White House

[Sea Demon]

Originally Posted by fatty

Probably would not have made much of a difference. I suspect we'd still be in Iraq.

You might be right, fatty. It's hard to determine how a Gore administration would have responded to Saddam's breach of all cease fire agreements and such. I myself think Gore would have continued to go to the UN ad nauseum. And we wouldn't have ever been in Iraq. Saddam would likely still be in power today if Gore was the President. And Iran would be full speed ahead on their nuclear weapons programs without a word about it. No sanctions....nothing. That's just my opinion only. How Gore would have really acted in his presidency is anyone's guess, and you might have been proven right in your own assertions.

@baggygreen - I agree. I don't think Bush and Gore were sitting there steamed at one another. I think Gore may be ruffled that he didn't win his bid to be President, but holding grudges is another matter. And not likely amongst a career politician. On your second paragraph, I think that if Iran was full bore on their nuclear wepons program like they seem now, we would have made them the priority. Of course many intelligence agencies at the time (not just American) were saying Saddam was in the process of building WMD.

[fatty]

Originally Posted by Sea Demon

You might be right, fatty. It's hard to determine how a Gore administration would have responded to Saddam's breach of all cease fire agreements and such. I myself think Gore would have continued to go to the UN ad nauseum. And we wouldn't have ever been in Iraq. Saddam would likely still be in power today if Gore was the President. And Iran would be full speed ahead on their nuclear weapons programs without a word about it. No sanctions....nothing. That's just my opinion only. How Gore would have really acted in his presidency is anyone's guess, and you might have been proven right in your own assertions.

Take a look at Gore's senatorial voting record. To say he had hawkish tendencies is not too much of an exaggeration: he was tough on Iraq in the early '90s and deviated from the Democrat party direction on a number of Gulf War issues. As a VP he was not much different. Here is a little gem from 1998:

Originally Posted by Al Gore

I will say that we have supported the Iraq Liberation Act passed by the Congress. We would like to see a different kind of regime in Iraq. We've said that plenty of times,

House unanimity over Afghanistan post-9/11 makes me think that conflict would be a given regardless of who was president. Noting Gore's history, and let's not forget Gore's running-mate was Joe Lieberman (Isn't he still a huge advocate for Iraq? People matter!), I don't think Gore going to Iraq is difficult to imagine either. The one thing I bet would seriously hold Gore back from Iraq is if there was still a Republican majority in the House as their was in 2003 and - in light of their dissent over Clinton in Kosovo - they perhaps were not along for the ride.

Of course these are all big what-ifs and don't do us much good today, except provide more ammunition against Gore when he complains about what a huge mistake Iraq was and how different things would have been if he'd won.

Edit: re: hawkish votes by Gore, see especially S.J.RES 1 & 2, 1/12/91.