The Real Al Gore on the Military

• Peace Action Voter Guide (Gore and Bush agree on all but one issue...)

• Star Wars Missile Defense System
  • Star Wars II: Here We Go Again (Federation of American Scientists)
  • Gore-Bush Missile Defense (Federation of American Scientists)
  • How the Pentagon Fixed the Star Wars Test (doesn't mention Gore/Lieberman)

• Gore wants to increase the military budget more than Bush does

  • Gore:
    • Gore proposes $100 billion for "readiness." Al Gore on Military Spending (Issues 2000)
    • Favors increasing military spending by more than $100 Billion over the next five years. America's Future on Military/Budget Priorities
    • Gore wants to increase military budget $127 billion over 10 years according to Peace Action comparison to Bradley. Gore-Bradley Voter Guide (PDF file)
    • Candidates Statements on Military Issues (Center for Defense Information)

      "We are now fighting for the first long-term, sustained increase in defense spending in a decade."
      -Al Gore, before the American Legion National Convention, Anaheim, CA, September 8, 1999

  • Bush:
    • $1 Billion more for salary; $20 Billion more for R&D for new weapons. George W. Bush on Military Spending (Issues 2000)
    • "The transformation of our military will require a new and greater emphasis on Research and Development. So I will also commit an additional $20 billion to defense R&D between the time I take office and 2006." The Candidates on Defense

• More war from Gore
  • Celebrity Politics (the "defense" section of this Counterpunch states the following:)

    It's an arms race between the Democrats and the Republicans. Gore and Bush are outbidding each other day by day in the bid to be the bigger hawk. Gore pledges more interventions ("forward engagement") round the world if he's elected president, and denounces Bush's plan for unilateral cuts in the nuclear arsenal as irresponsible.

  • Gore supports vigorous intervention abroad; Bush less so

    In his debate performances, interviews and speeches on foreign and economic policy, Gore has repeatedly portrayed himself as a man who has come to believe in vigorous American intervention abroad, a reversal of Democratic philosophy for most of the time since the end of the war in Vietnam. He describes how the experience of seeing the Clinton administration move too slowly to end the killing in Bosnia drove him to conclude that America must be prepared to prevent disaster, and how two successive global financial crises reshaped his understanding of the central role economic stability must play in the foreign policy agenda. Bush, on the other hand, has woven a middle ground between two battling factions of his party - internationalists who support engagement with great powers like China and isolationists who are deeply suspicious of the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization.

    Source: David Sanger, NY Times (online at Al Gore on Foreign Policy : Oct 30, 2000)

• Miscellaneous
  • Gore Votes Against Cuts in the Military Budget

  • Military Experts Critical of Administration's Pentagon Spending Plan

  • The Pentagon's Presidential Auction

  • The Inflation of Dollar Bill Bradley:

    Gore, bracingly upfront by comparison, recently told the Stop the Arms Race political action that he believes the military budget should be increased.

  • Al Gore: Friend of Corporate America Gore & Lieberman were 2 of only five Democrats to vote in favor of entering into the Gulf War. [There were a total of 10 Democrats in favor according to Al Gore on Defense (Issues 2000)]

  • The Trouble With Cheney: He's Dumb (In Congress, Gore worked with Cheney to promote military spending, including nuclear missiles)

  • Gore, Lieberman, and Revenge of the Press Prudes (Lieberman's military ties, Gore's stances on the Middle East)

Last modified: 2 November 2000

http://www.debatethis.org/gore/military/