The Gorebot Calling The Kettle Black

27 Sep, 2002 by John Hawkins

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The Gorebot Calling The Kettle Black: I was going to respond to Al Gore’s latest brainless charges but Stephen Green nailed it so well I figured I’d just quote him…

Which of Gore’s advisors is it who still allows his boss to speak in public?

Former Vice President Al Gore yesterday made his second attack this week on President Bush’s war on terrorism, accusing the administration of ignoring signs that al Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden planned to attack the United States on September 11.

“The warnings were there” before the attacks, Mr. Gore said.

Which warnings, Al?

The Khobar Towers bombing in 1996?

The African embassy bombings in 1998?

The USS Cole attack in 2000?

Where was the Clinton/Gore response? What was done? Odds are, Osama bin Laden is dead, dead. It took at least four serious attacks on American and lives before he and his wholly-owned Taliban subsidiary were dealt with.

After the first three attacks, Clinton/Gore decisively blew up an aspirin factory, shot missiles at an empty camp, and filed some very harsh briefs.

One attack — one — under a new Administration, and Osama bin Laden is either dead, or so deep in hiding as to not be a danger for a good, long time.

If Gore wants a future in politics, he has got to either shut up, or develop some actual political instincts. Between this absurd statement and Monday’s idiot speech, he is absolutely killing himself.

Of course, I’d also throw something in about 1996, Sudan, and Bin Laden but I think Stephen covered almost everything else…

Update: Charles Krauthammer tears into Gore as well for his speech on Monday…

“The tone of the speech is best reflected in Gore’s contemptuous dismissal of the U.S. victory in Afghanistan as “defeating a fifth-rate military power.” If the Taliban were a fifth-rate military power, why didn’t the Clinton-Gore administration destroy it and spare us Sept. 11?

It is not as if, during Gore’s term, al Qaeda had not declared itself or established its postal address. It declared war on the United States, blew up our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and attacked the USS Cole. What did Gore’s administration do? Fire a few missiles into the Afghan desert and a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory, then wash its hands and leave the problem to its successors.

Why didn’t the Clinton-Gore administration go after this fifth-rate military power? This is a question that even Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked. In an interview with the German newspaper Bild shortly after Sept. 11, Putin recounted having talked to the Clinton administration about Osama bin Laden: “They wrung their hands so helplessly and said, ‘The Taliban are not turning him over, what can one do?’ I remember I was surprised: If they are not turning him over, one has to think and do something.”

They did nothing. Gore now scorns the success of the man who did something…”