Quoting a war critic
Posted by Richard on August 26, 2005
Probably the easiest way to make fools of the left is to quote them. On the subject of Iraq, John Henke did so at QandO, and with devastating effect. See if you can guess the "victim" of Henke’s ruthless quoting:
Prior to the war, he said of Saddam, that "tyrant remains firmly in power, resisting by every means the will of the international community. No wonder so many Americans ask themselves whether our victory over Saddam [in the first Gulf War] will ultimately prove an illusion", while criticizing the previous administration for a "blatant disregard for brutal terrorism, a dangerous blindness to the murderous ambitions of a despot".
He attacked the opposition for ignoring acts of Iraqi terrorism, such as "the fact that it was an Iraq-based group that masterminded the assassination attempt against Israel’s ambassador to the UK" and "the fact that the terrorist who masterminded the attack on the Achille Lauro and the savage murder of American Leon Klinghoffer fled with Iraqi assistance" and that "the team of terrorists who set out to blow up the Rome airport came from Baghdad with suitcase bombs".
Of course, it’s not those quotes that reveal this leftist as a fool. It’s putting them in context and contrasting them with his positions today:
The VP went on to argue that old Neocon chestnut, that, as a result of our previous willingness to overlook his intransigence, "Saddam had every reason to assume that [we] would look the other way—no matter what he did". On the contrary, he claimed, "Saddam Hussein’s nature and intentions were perfectly visible", and that we needed a leader who believed "that the enemies of freedom cannot be anything but the enemies of our country".
That Vice President, however, had not yet become Vice President. At the time, he was still Senator Al Gore.
In 1992, Al Gore questioned whether "a man who mistook Saddam Hussein for a docile ally" until it was too late should "have a second term as President of the United States?" Today, he and his Moveon.org crowd wonder why a man who decided not to make that mistake has a second term as President of the United States.
In 2002, Al Gore said he "felt betrayed by the first Bush administration’s hasty departure from the battlefield". Today, Gore’s Moveon.org crowd rally around demands that we pull another hasty departure from the battlefield.
Ouch. That’s gotta sting.
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