An Inconvenient Truth - washingtonpost.com

An Inconvenient Truth - washingtonpost.com:

"Gore blames television for what he sees as an alarming decline in the quality of political discourse in America. When political news was communicated mostly through newspapers, he argues, there was a lively exchange of opinion and an opportunity for reason to win out in the marketplace of ideas. Once newspapers were replaced in this role by the 30-second televised campaign commercial, rational debate withered away.

He blames George W. Bush for just about everything else. Gore's attack on the Bush administration -- on the invasion of Iraq, the curtailment of civil liberties at home in response to global terrorism, and the refusal of the White House and federal agencies to take the dangers of climate change seriously -- is scathing....... Nevertheless, much that he writes seems to be on the mark. History, Gore writes, will judge the Iraq war -- a 'decision to invade and occupy a fragile nation that did not attack us and posed no threat to us' -- as 'not only tragic but absurd.' After four years and more than 3,000 American deaths, most of the American public is inclined to agree with him."