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Al Gore urges Bush to tackle roots of terror

S Ali in New York

Former United States vice president Al Gore made a forceful plea to the Bush administration for a 'bold, far-reaching vision to address the causes of terrorism'.

He said poverty, disease and environmental damage form an 'evil axis', forcing many to take to terrorist activities.

While supporting US President George W Bush's efforts to expand the fight against terror by focusing on Iraq, Iran and North Korea, Gore however, criticised the Bush administration for showing 'impatience and disdain' toward its allies in the war in Afghanistan.

"We may be the world's sole remaining superpower but (in the war on terror) we are going to need allies," Gore said on Tuesday night in his address to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

Talking about the possibility of an American attack on Iraq, Gore, interestingly, said that the Bush administration would have look at the survival of the Musharraf regime in Pakistan, before arriving at any such decision

Speaking to rediff.com, Gore later explained that by mentioning Musharraf, widely seen by Indians as the architect behind the Kargil War, he wasn't trying 'to offer any brief on what Pakistan has or hasn't done'.

He added that he didn't agree with every policy taken by the Pakistan president.

Gore said that he was interested in the region 'moving in the right direction', and said Musharraf had done things that 'some of his potential replacements certainly would not have'.

During his address, Gore said that Iraq still was a 'virulent threat', and that destroying Saddam Hussain should be considered as the next possible step in the war against terrorism.

However, Gore said, "Failure cannot be an option," stating that the decision to end the 1991 war against Iraq with Hussain still in power was one that 'all ... deeply regret(ted) for the ensuing decade'.

"Iran should be considered a much more dangerous challenge than Iraq," he said, but suggested encouraging US-friendly elements to confront the country's ruling religious right.

Past work with South Korea, Gore said, showed that North Koreans could be nudged toward positive relations.

He also suggested that the US make 'a commitment to work with those whom we have rescued (Afghanistan) until they can stand on their own feet'.

Despite the talk of war and terrorism, Gore said that military force alone would not be enough in combating terrorism.

Twisting the well-used metaphor of 'draining the swamp of terrorism', Gore said the 'aquifer of anger' in the Islamic world over poor economic conditions and repressive governments would have to be dried first else there would be continued violence.

"We may well put down terror in its present manifestations," he said. "But if we do not attend to the larger fundamentals as well, then the ground is fertile and has been seeded for the next generation of those born to hate the United States of America."

"The evil we now confront is not just the one-time creation of a charismatic leader and his co-conspirators," he continued. "What we deal with now is today's manifestation of an anger welling up from deep layers of grievance shared by many millions of people."

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