As an aside, however, I highly recommend to readers a book published in the early 1980s by former Carter Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan. Crisis describes the Carter administration's handling of the Iranian hostage standoff. It's a hidden gem in a tall stack of books penned by ex-White House staffers. It explains why Carter remains wedded to his diplomacy-at-all-costs philosophy. Some might argue that Carter's patience during the Iranian crisis paid off with the freeing of captive Americans (albeit right after Ronald Reagan took the presidential Oath of Office). But one has to wonder if a President Jimmy Carter today would even consider a mission similar to the one he ordered in 1980 to rescue the American hostages in Iran.
Given the early discoveries of stored nerve gas, mass graves and torture-chamber meat hooks now being uncovered in Iraq, one also can't help but wonder if even Carter is having second thoughts about his antiwar position.
As for Al Gore -- the man who would be president -- our poll found little enthusiasm for him as a hypothetical architect of war and peace in 2003. Only 4 percent of poll respondents chose Gore. Ironically, he is no dove among Democrats. Gore voted for Operation Desert Storm in 1991 when many of his Democratic colleagues in Congress wouldn't.
Bush's support hinges on the so-far military success of the war. The man flat-out rolled the dice. Had American casualties been high, Iraqi missiles rained on Israel or a terrorist attack hit the States, Americans almost surely would have condemned the president in larger numbers. And that's the point. Bush displayed the determination to put his words into concerted action. Now evidence is starting to mount that Hussein is every bit the tyrant and international menace the United States claims he is.
Sometimes peace is secured with shrewd diplomacy, and sometimes the price is higher. Witness President Harry Truman's decision to drop two atom bombs on Japan in 1945.
For years I have argued that Jimmy Carter was unfairly deprived of the Nobel Peace Prize for his having brokered the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel. Finally he has that honor. In future years it might be fair to ask if George W. Bush, who took a different road pioneered by Truman, might deserve similar recognition. I think he does.