Would We Have an Iran Nuclear Crisis If Al Gore Were President?

Vincent Gioia

Would we have an Iran nuclear crisis if Algore were president?

What a shocking question; but the answer is more shocking, we would not have an Iran nuclear crisis if Algore had been elected president and was in office now. Before you stop reading, consider this.

Why do we have an Iran nuclear crisis? The answer is that Iran is not afraid of the United States and believes it can do anything it chooses to do without military repercussions. Anyone familiar with American politics as reported in the American news media, and rest assured Iran is very familiar with American news media reports, knows that there is no political unity in the United States regarding our country’s security interests. Even worse than that from the standpoint of American foreign policy, there is a continuing drum beat against President Bush, his administration and any suggestion that the United States would or should take additional military action anywhere in the world, including Iran.

It is indisputable that enemies of the United States take comfort and rejoice at any criticism of America, especially that which occurs in the United States itself. There is nothing more comforting and reassuring to our enemies and terrorists around the world than the ranting of the domestic ‘Fifth Column’ comprising the Democrat Party and the liberal news media. By definition a Fifth Column is “a group of people who act traitorously and subversively out of a secret sympathy with an enemy of their country”. Clearly, this definition applies to liberal drum beaters so prevalent today. These people are so arrogant in their behavior; they don’t even disguise their sympathies and do everything publicly to humiliate and undermine the United States. If public opinion in the country is represented and reported to be disunified in a common defense, why should our enemies in general, and Iran in particular, expect to be disrupted in their plans to produce nuclear weapons, and the use of such weapons as political blackmail whenever threatened?

Now, let’s examine a different scenario. Algore is president (alright, I bite my tongue), and he says the same things Pres. George says about Iran and their quest for nuclear weapons. Algore says: “this will not stand”, “Iran cannot be permitted to have nuclear weapons”, “and “we will do everything in our power to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons”. Will there be a Fifth Column at work to thwart president Algore’s foreign policy and rail against any attempt to take military action if necessary? Will there be an opposition political party that tries to subvert the president and his policies to protect our country? (As an aside, will there be any opposition to wiretapping international conversations with terror suspects?). The answer is, of course, no. The news media will revert to the posture assumed when Clinton was president, ‘the government and the president can do no wrong’. And what about the opposition Republican party, will they be presidential critics and government obstructionists – not likely. The Republican Party would, correctly, put aside political differences and support the country and the president. Although we may not see the national cohesiveness that occurred in the ‘40’s during WWII, Americans of all stripes would stand as one against the possibility of a terrorist Iran creating nuclear weapons to share with other terrorists and with which to threaten the world and our country.

With a united America to face, the mullahs in Iran would not have the will, or stomach, to continue defiance of a world community that includes the United States. In all likelihood Iran would not even have progressed as far as they have now toward becoming a nuclear power. There would be no centrifuges, no uranium enrichment, and it wouldn’t matter a wit what Russia and China said about it. The UN Security Council would not be relevant; and the US Secretary of State would not be going around the world to beg for support of other countries.

Headlines in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times would all be heralding our strong determined president and his willingness to do whatever it takes to protect Americans. The news media would shame anyone that opposed the president’s actions as ‘isolationists’ and worse. As a final indication of solidarity, George Soros would sell all his Iranian interests, pocketing a healthy profit, and sail quietly into night on Lake Geneva.

That's what would happen if Algore had been president, and had the courage we hope President Bush has.