Would President Gore Have Invaded Iraq?

Realistically speaking we should have just taken Saddam down in '91 problem was Bush 41 listened to the Saudis who wanted him to stay in power as a counter balance to Iran.


I don't think the Saudis were the only ones thinking that knocking over Iraq would give the Iranians a bit too much elbow-room.

Saddam Hussein was a counter against the Iranians and he certainly wasn't letting al qaeda have free run of Iraq the way we ended up doing by dismantling the Iraqi security apparatus before we had anything ready to replace it.
 
People have been talking a lot about what Bush would do, but what about Saddam? In OTL he never believed Bush would actually attack, not until he actually did. He had simply miscalculated Bush's reaction to his provocations. Would he have acted different if Gore was in the White House? Would Saddam be aware of Gore's anti-Saddam attitude, and therefor not try to provoke him? If he got scared enough of Gore, believing him to be moving towards an invasion, perhaps he would attempt a different tactic? It's not like he hadn't been in the pocket of America before, so why not try it again? They certainly had some common enemies.

Or because these sorts of folks CANNOT be happy.

Hang them with a new rope and STILL they'll complaine.
What are you saying here? What Devolved said is pretty much the reason for the Arab Spring, not any kind of example set by Bush in Iraq.
 
People have been talking a lot about what Bush would do, but what about Saddam? In OTL he never believed Bush would actually attack, not until he actually did. He had simply miscalculated Bush's reaction to his provocations. Would he have acted different if Gore was in the White House? Would Saddam be aware of Gore's anti-Saddam attitude, and therefor not try to provoke him? If he got scared enough of Gore, believing him to be moving towards an invasion, perhaps he would attempt a different tactic? It's not like he hadn't been in the pocket of America before, so why not try it again? They certainly had some common enemies.

....


Errr, what?
 
Errr, what?
We supported Saddam against Iran, we helped him make his chem weapons, we sent via proxies foreign equipment to Iraq, we gave him financial support and helped train his troops, we gave him satellite imagery

We even overlooked an accidental attack on the USS Stark and fought a small conflict with Iran
 
Gore was a fan of regime change in Iraq, I think it's certainly plausible.

It's interesting how everyone presents 9/11 as a foregone conclusion. I doubt it would have happened under Gore or a more competent Republican. The recently released CIA documents have shown once again that it was likely preventable by a vaguely competent administration.
 
We supported Saddam against Iran, we helped him make his chem weapons, we sent via proxies foreign equipment to Iraq, we gave him financial support and helped train his troops, we gave him satellite imagery

We even overlooked an accidental attack on the USS Stark and fought a small conflict with Iran

Small potatoes to the huge preponderance of his war machine which was Warsaw Pact.
 
I am sure that the Iraqi people wanted to be free. They just didn't believe for a second that the US wanted that or had any good intentions. From the Iraqi pov America had spent the previous 12 years screwing them. 9 years of occupation didn't change any minds.
 
i Don't think he would have invaded iraq because while iraq and saddam were really bad people,most of the intellegence of wmds and buying nuclear material from africa was pure and complete fiction bush fed to the un and the taxpayers.
 

Glen

Moderator
Gore would not have invaded Iraq at the point the Bush Administration did. They almost would have to go into Afghanistan regardless. It is possible that later in history Saddam could do something stupid enough to get even Gore to call for invasion given how badly Saddam read US sentiments on issues. However, most likely things just limp on, though even before 9/11 there was a feeling that something would have to be done about Saddam eventually, just no one knew what or when.
 
Didn't the Bush administration already draw up plans for military action against Iraq before 9/11? I swear I recall that as something said on the forum. And, if true, then that indicates Bush just, as Bush, wanted to go after Iraq, and thus there's no reason for Gore to.

It's not uncommon for the government to draw up invasion plans for just about any enemy, the Obama administration probably has just in case invasion plans for Pakistan, Syria, Iran, and North Korea with the hope they never have to.
 
It's not uncommon for the government to draw up invasion plans for just about any enemy, the Obama administration probably has just in case invasion plans for Pakistan, Syria, Iran, and North Korea with the hope they never have to.


I cite war plan Red in support of this, that said it always gave the impression of "we're bored lets draw lines on a map of canada":p to me.
 

d32123

Banned
It's not uncommon for the government to draw up invasion plans for just about any enemy, the Obama administration probably has just in case invasion plans for Pakistan, Syria, Iran, and North Korea with the hope they never have to.

Wouldn't be shocked if we have just in case plans for every single nation in the world including our allies.
 
Wouldn't be shocked if we have just in case plans for every single nation in the world including our allies.

ESPECIALLY your allies.
I would be surprised if the US had NO plan whatsoever for an armed conflict with France, Germany or Japan, let alone, say, Turkey.
And I mean post Cold War ones. (Actually, I sort of recall reading something on the lines that the UN specifically stipulate Council permanent members being ready to stop Germany, Japan or Italy in case they have funny ideas again. It is has to be a very old provision that probably nobody has taken seriously decades I guess, but still, on paper the UN Security Council is still meant as a prosecution of WWII military alliance).
 
ESPECIALLY your allies.
I would be surprised if the US had NO plan whatsoever for an armed conflict with France, Germany or Japan, let alone, say, Turkey.
And I mean post Cold War ones. (Actually, I sort of recall reading something on the lines that the UN specifically stipulate Council permanent members being ready to stop Germany, Japan or Italy in case they have funny ideas again. It is has to be a very old provision that probably nobody has taken seriously decades I guess, but still, on paper the UN Security Council is still meant as a prosecution of WWII military alliance).
Hell we have emergency reaction plans drawn up for the ZOmbie Apocalypse, I LOVE this country.
 
Gore was a fan of regime change in Iraq, I think it's certainly plausible.

It's interesting how everyone presents 9/11 as a foregone conclusion. I doubt it would have happened under Gore or a more competent Republican. The recently released CIA documents have shown once again that it was likely preventable by a vaguely competent administration.

How would a different president have prevented 9/11? Bin Laden and co. had been launching attacks against US interests and were planning a big attack against the US itself since Clinton. I don't see their ultimate goal for a big attack stopping just because Bush isn't president unless we change other things like stronger Clinton era response to the African bombings.
 
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