I also always believed that President Gore would go all out to remove Taliban and Saddam after 9-11.
Gore would do just like Bush, only much more so, because, as ‘Tom Holsinger’ said, right wingers would keep repeating that all the Al Qaida terror acts against US happened on Clinton and Gore watch, starting in 1993. “They made US less safe”, would be repeated every day by Republicans and with much greater sting. So President Gore would have to act big time, in some part just to change that perception.
That would mean to destroy the Taliban regime first, of course. So what would Gore do next? Would he concentrate on chasing Al Qaida operatives or would he go for something big? Something that would be long due, the right thing to do that can also improve his image and raise his popularity? Nowadays many choose to forget but the idea of Saddam removal was extremely popular circa 2002-03 and Bush ratings has sky-rocketed when he invaded Iraq.
I think Gore would certainly move to remove Saddam and the net result would be about the same but in reverse. Saddam would be taken out, Iraq would plunge into chaos, some mistakes would be made and Republican opposition would overstate President Gore’s faults and downplay all his achievements.
Would Gore survive 2004 elections? But we are getting ahead of ourselves…
