SPEECH BY SENATOR AL GORE
Center for National Policy
September 29, 1992
One of the most important questions in this campaign involves the
judgment of the candidates on foreign policy. The American people
know the world is full of unexpected surprises and dangers -- and as
a result they want to know whether or not a president can handle
these uncertainties, recognize unanticipated dangers, and realize
when national policy must be changed to reflect new realities. The
American people also want to know whether or not they can count on
their president to tell them the truth.
President Bush, in his handling of our policy toward Iraq, has failed
all these tests, and failed them badly. His poor judgment, moral
blindness and bungling policies led directly to a war that should
never have taken place. And because of his naivete and lack of
candor, U.S. taxpayers are now stuck with paying the bill for $1.9
billion President Bush gave to Saddam Hussein even though top
administration officials were repeatedly told Saddam was using our
dollars to buy weapons technology. Bush, of course, believes that
the war with Iraq was his finest hour as the organizer and leader of
a vast coalition of armed forces, united for the purpose of
frustrating the designs of an evil dictator.
But the war with Iraq had deep roots, and if George Bush's
prosecution of the war is part of his record, so too is his
involvement in the diplomacy which led to it, both in the Reagan/Bush
era, and far more so, during his presidency when he accelerated
foreign aid and the sale of weapons technology to Iraq -- right up
until the invasion of Kuwait -- in spite of repeated warnings that
anyone with common sense would have had no difficulty understanding.
The path leading us to that war, and the path which the President has
followed after, are deeply shadowed in profound error, in duplicity,
and in amoral disregard for our most basic values as a nation. There
is also substantial evidence that his administration intentionally
falsified export records, and reports to Congress -- and in the
process apparently violated a number of laws intended to prevent such
horrendous mistakes.
Nineteen months ago, President Bush called Saddam Hussein a new
Hitler who had to be stopped at all costs. Yet today, that same
tyrant remains firmly in power, resisting by every means the will of
the international community. No wonder so many Americans ask
themselves whether our victory over Saddam will ultimately prove an
illusion.
<much more>
http://www.mit.edu/afs/net/user/tytso/usenet/nptn/campaign92/dems/15Will they listen now? :shrug: