|
 ne
day after Sen. Tom Daschle, the nation's top Democrat, criticized
President Bush for calling Iran, Iraq, and North Korea an "axis
of evil," the president picked up an unlikely ally: Al Gore.
"As far
as I'm concerned, there really is something to be said for occasionally
putting diplomacy aside and laying one's cards on the table. There
is value in calling evil by its name," Gore told a Council
on Foreign Relations audience Tuesday night in New York.
In his first
wide-ranging comments on foreign policy since losing the 2000 election
to Bush, Gore praised Bush's handling of the war, saying his former
opponent "deserves tremendous credit for the way he has led
our nation in a highly successful opening counterattack in the war
against terror."
Yet Gore gingerly
distanced himself from the popular president, giving in his speech
an idea of how he would have handled the war differently were he
in the Oval Office.
It was predictable
stuff: boilerplate "root cause" analysis of the world's
ills, moderately activist advice about engaging the world, and a
mild rebuke of the Bush administration for what he termed a unilateralist
approach to foreign relations in wartime.
"The administration
in which I served looked at the challenges we faced in the world
and said we wished to tackle these 'With others, if possible; alone,
if we must,'" Gore said. "This administration sometimes
seems inclined to stand that on its head, so that the message is:
'With others, if we must; by ourselves, if possible.'"
Gore chided
the Bush team for its relationship to NATO countries, saying that
America shows "impatience and disdain" for their views
and military capabilities.
Yet he criticized
the Europeans as well, saying they may have brought this upon themselves,
in part for being "much too ready to believe that the best
way to deal with dangerous forces is always to engage them in dialogue.
"Maybe
some of them bought peace for themselves by not looking too hard
for terrorists who plot against us on their soil, so long as their
plans did not disturb domestic tranquility," said Gore.
The former
vice president, for whom this was the first in a series of speeches
meant to influence the agenda in the fall congressional elections
(and perhaps beyond), took a hard line on Iraq, saying a "final
reckoning" with Saddam Hussein is in order.
"To my
way of thinking, the real question is not the principle of the thing,
but of making sure that this time we will finish the matter on our
terms," he said.
Gore implicitly
criticized the president's father for leaving Saddam in power during
the Gulf War. Left unacknowledged was the main reason for that mistaken
policy: President George H. W. Bush felt constrained by respect
for the same sort of cautious multilateralism Gore advocated in
the speech. Gore did not resolve the contradiction.
At the heart
of Gore's half-hour address was an attack on what he termed "another
axis of evil in the world: poverty and ignorance; disease and environmental
disorder; corruption and political oppression." The former
vice-president warned that any military victories over terrorism
will be short-lived if these problems go unaddressed.
It is hard
to think of anyone in American politics who disagrees with that.
Yet Gore was short on advice on what should be done, aside from
spending more money on a new Marshall Plan to assuage the poverty
and hopelessness in Muslim countries, and an unspecified "far-reaching
American strategy for encouraging reform."
The former
vice president spoke of society-wide rage and envy of the West as
a potent source of terrorist recruitment in Islamic countries. But
he appeared as mystified as anybody on how the American government
should deal with this phenomenon. During a question-and-answer period,
an audience member asked Gore what the government could specifically
do to ameliorate Arab anger. Gore merely restated the problem and
moved on.
The failed
presidential contender returned briefly to his pro-environment campaign
theme, warning that "massive environmental disorder, including
global warming, is literally a threat to international peace and
stability."
Gore added
that the nation must not ignore warning signs about imminent climate
change in the same way it ignored warnings about imminent al Qaeda
attacks before September 11.
Looking ahead
to the next election, the 2000 Democratic nominee, who has not ruled
out a second run for the presidency, seemed to position himself
as a cautious foreign-policy hawk among a putative Democratic field.
"I hope
that this president's record makes it damn hard for the competition
to complain about his record in foreign policy," the once and
perhaps future New Democrat said. "That may be bad for the
loyal opposition. But it's good for the people, who deserve it.
And I promise my support for whatever he may do in support of that
prayer."
|
