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Wednesday, September 25, 2002
Michael Kelly, thy name is WHORE. Gore uttered his first big lie in the second paragraph of the speech when he informed the audience that his main concern was with "those who attacked us on Sept. 11, and who have thus far gotten away with it." Who have thus far gotten away with it. The government of Gore's country has led a coalition of nations in war against al Qaeda, "those who attacked us on Sept. 11"; has destroyed al Qaeda's central organization and much of its physical assets; has destroyed the Taliban, which had made Afghanistan a state home for al Qaeda; has bombed the forces of al Qaeda from one end of Afghanistan to the other; has killed at least hundreds of terrorists and their allies; and has imprisoned hundreds more and is hunting down the rest around the world. All this while Gore, apparently, slept. Well, perhaps Gore was talking loosely. No. He made clear in the next sentence this was a considered indictment: "The vast majority of those who sponsored, planned and implemented the coldblooded murder of more than 3,000 Americans are still at large, still neither located nor apprehended, much less punished and neutralized." If there is a more reprehensible piece of bloody-shirt-waving in American political history than this attempt by a man on the sidelines to position himself as the hero of 3,000 unavenged dead, I am not aware of it. And, again, this sentence is a lie. The men who "implemented" the "coldblooded murder of more than 3,000 Americans" are not at large. They are dead; they died in the act of murder, on Sept. 11. Gore can look this up. In truth, the "vast majority" of the men who "sponsored" and "planned" the crime are dead also, or in prison, or on the run. The inmates at Guantanamo Bay, and the hunted survivors of Tora Bora, and the terrorist cell members arrested nearly every week, and the thousands of incarcerated or fugitive Taliban, might disagree as to whether they have been located, apprehended, punished or neutralized. Ok, Mike, riddle me these: How many people are/were in Al Qaeda? What are their names? Did we get them all? What percentage of them did we get? Are you sure it was "a vast majority?" Do you have any proof? I seem to recall reports of large numbers of them fleeing to Pakistan. Did we get them? Did we get every cell in Germany? In Italy? In Belgium? In Egypt? In Algeria? In Saudi Arabia? In Central Asia? In Indonesia? In the Phillipines? In saying they didn't get away with it, are you saying that we no longer have anything to fear from them? You're sure there won't be any more attacks? Would you bet the lives of your children on that? How about the lives of everyone else's children? Although Gore knows that Bush is also seeking, as Democrats also demanded, United Nations approval, he pretended this represented a failure of leadership as well because "thus far, we have not been successful in getting it." True enough -- because the Security Council hasn't voted. Thus far. Cute. The approval of the UN is different than the approval of the Security Council. You do know that, don't you? Also, are you agreeing that failure to get UN approval before invading Iraq represents a failure of leadership? If so, then Gore's right on the money. With the exception of Britain, every other country in the world that has spoken on the issue--including Kuwait--has come out against a US invasion. Does it look likely they'll vote with us? Do you think Bush's "we're gonna do it, so you better be with us or else" approach has the ring of great leadership? Doesn't seem like it to me. If you want to talk about "bloody-shirt-waving," maybe you could look to the words of our glorious President on the subject in the weeks and months after the attacks. By the way, "on the run" means the same thing as "at large." You can look it up. 
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