Al Gore presented a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York earlier today, and in a sign that he is running for Prez in 2004, he agreed that Iran, Iraq, and North Korea are in fact an ‘axis of evil.’ Because he is Al Gore, he could not stop there, and he offered some unsolicited advice:
“The United States must deal with the threat of Iraq “on our terms,” he said.
Which, presumably, means ‘our’ as in the collective American sense, and not ‘our’ as in the Clinton/Gore sense. The former makes sense and is the advice equivalent of cold oatmeal (bland, lumpy, pedestrian and only mildly offensive when served to someone), the latter is a clear signal to aspirin factory workers all around the globe to head for the hills.
That means U.S. strategy must be mindful of the survival of Pakistan’s leader, avoid an escalation of Middle East violence and protect the security and interest of allies like Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the Gulf states.
MmmHmm. Can’t you see all the European CFR attendees smiling and nodding. The snarkiness here is because ONLY A BLITHERING IDIOT WOULD NOT HAVE THESE AS GOALS. What the hell do these dolts think is going on in the White House?
Cheney: “Mr. President, if we do this, we can ensure that Musharref is deposed, we can finally have the Israelis and the PLO really going at it like crazed men, and maybe we can further destabilize the region, throw Turkish Democracy into an anarchic pre-autocratic state, and if we are damn lucky, we can get Qatar and Yemen to go at it.”
Bush: “Let’s Roll.”
Gore continues with his sage advice: Gore said that once a strategy for Iraq is developed, “we must be prepared to go the limit.”
I am assuming that ‘to go the limit’ means something different than what the previous White House was doing most of the time when they were ‘going all the way.’
Iran must be recognized as a potential threat greater than Iraq, but the U.S. should also find ways “to encourage the majority who obviously wish to develop a more constructive relationship with us,” Gore said.
Paging Michael Ledeen, paging Michael Ledeen.
He said the United States needs to keep the peace on the Korean peninsula by being ready for war. He said that in the 1990s, the Clinton administration showed “that a creative, sustained program could help move the North Korean regime in new directions.”
Clinton/Gore-like head in the sand, multilateral appeasement will help North Korea move in a new direction. South. And don’t feed me the Rahm Emmanuel/Paul Begala nonsense that our overtures to Kim Dip Song (or whatever the hell his name is) were working. Keep thinking that, while they are improving their ICBM technology and starving their populace.
“It isn’t enough to destroy what is evil, then seek to leave by the nearest door,” Gore said. “We must make the commitment to work with those whom we have rescued until they can stand on their own feet.”
But he said that other dangerous forces have to be addressed, such as poverty, ignorance, environmental problems, disease, corruption and political oppression.
Thus confirming that he is ready to join the rest of the root-cause apologists in the tenured bliss that is modern academia.