Posted on 09/07/2004 2:26:07 PM PDT by freestyle
BUSH: I think credibility is going to be very important in the future in the Middle East. I want everybody to know, should I be the president, Israel's going to be our friend. I'm going to stand by Israel.
Secondly, that I think it's important to reach out to moderate Arab nations like Jordan and Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
It's important to be friends with people when you don't need each other so that when you do, there's a strong bond of friendship. And that's going to be particularly important in dealing not only with situations such as now occurring in Israel, but with Saddam Hussein.
The coalition against Saddam has fallen apart or it's unraveling, let's put it that way. The sanctions are being violated. We don't know whether he's developing weapons of mass destruction. He'd better not be or there's going to be a consequence, should I be the president.
But it's important to have credibility and credibility is formed by being strong with your friends and resoluting your determination. It's one of the reasons why I think it's important for this nation to develop an anti-ballistic missile system that we can share with our allies in the Middle East, if need be, to keep the peace; to be able to say to the Saddam Husseins of the world or the Iranians, "Don't dare threaten our friends."
It's also important to keep strong ties in the Middle East, credible ties, because of the energy crisis we're now in. After all, a lot of the energy is produced from the Middle East.
And so I appreciate what the administration is doing. I hope you can get a sense of, should I be fortunate eough to be the president, how my administration will react in the Middle East.
LEHRER: So you don't believe, Vice President Gore, that we should take sides and resolve this right now? There a lot of people pushing, "Hey, the United States should declare itself and not be so neutral in this particular situation."
GORE: Well, we stand with Israel, but we have maintained the ability to serve as an honest broker. And one of the reasons that's important is that Israel cannot have direct dialogue with some of the people on the other side of conflicts, especially during times of tension, unless that dialogue comes through us.
And if we throw away that ability to serve as an honest broker, then we have thrown we will have thrown away a strategic asset that's important not only to us but also to Israel. LEHRER: Do you agree with that, Governor?
BUSH: I do. I do think this, though. I think that when it comes to time tables, it can't be the United States time table as to how discussions take place. It's got to be a time table that all parties can agree to, other than like the Palestinians and the Israelis.
Secondly, any lasting peace is going to have to be a peace that's good for both sides, and, therefore, the term honest broker makes sense. Whether it this current administration's worked hard to keep the parties at the table. I will try to do the same thing. But it won't be on my time table; it'll be on a time table that people are comfortable with in the Middle East.
LEHRER: People watching here tonight are very interested in Middle East policy. And they're so interested that they want to make a they want to base their vote on differences between the two of you as president, how you would handle Middle East policy. Is there any difference?
GORE: I haven't heard a big difference right, in the last few exchanges.
BUSH: Well, I think, it's hard to tell. I think that, you know, I would hope to be able to convince people I could handle the Iraqi situation better. I mean, we don't...
LEHRER: Saddam Hussein, you mean?
BUSH: Yes.
LEHRER: You could get him out of there?
BUSH: I'd like to, of course. And I presume this administration would as well. But we don't know. There's no inspectors now in Iraq. The coalition that was in place isn't as strong as it used to be.
He is a danger.
We don't want him fishing in troubled waters in the Middle East. And it's going to be hard to it's going to be important to rebuild that coalition to keep the pressure on him.
LEHRER: Do you feel that is a failure of the Clinton administration?
BUSH: I do.
LEHRER: Mr. Vice President?
GORE: Well, when I got to be a part of the current administration, it was right after I was one of the few members of my political party to support former President Bush in the Persian Gulf War resolution.
And at the end of that war, for whatever reasons, it was not finshed in a way that removed Saddam Hussein from power. I know there are all kinds of circumstances and explanations. But the fact is that that's the situation that was left when I got there. And we have maintained the sanctions.
Now, I want to go further. I want to give robust support to the groups that are trying to overthrow Saddam Hussein. And I know there are allegations that they're too weak to do it, but that's what they said about the forces that were opposing Milosevic in Serbia.
And, you know, the policy of enforcing sanctions against Serbia has just resulted in a spectacular victory for democracy just in the past week. And it seems to me that, having taken so long to see the sanctions work there, building upon the policy of containment that was successful over a much longer period of time against the former Soviet Union and the Communist Bloc, it seems a little early to declare that we should give up on the sanctions.
I know the governor's not necessarily saying that. But, you know, all of these flights that have come in? All of them have been in accordance with the sanctions regime, I'm told, except for three where they notified. And they're trying to break out of the box, there's no question about it. I don't think they should be allowed to.
LEHRER: Are you did he correct you did he state your position correctly? You're not calling for eliminating the sanctions, are you?
BUSH: No, of course not. Absolutely not. I want them to be tougher.
bttt
Bush has my vote.
I'm waiting for the video of, "The Look," that occured during the 2nd debate.
Remember when Gore practically muscled his way to the microphone? To think he almost had his hands on the Football.
I had all three debates on video, but I accidentally recorded over them.
D-OHH! Bigtime!
I was looking for video of these online... Is there any?
Not that are active, but I haven't really had the time to do an extensive search.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.