The Republican Party platform:

> We support the full implementation of the Iraq Liberation Act, which should be regarded as a starting point in a comprehensive plan for the removal of Saddam Hussein and the restoration of international inspections in collaboration with his successor. Republicans recognize that peace and stability in the Persian Gulf is impossible as long as Saddam Hussein rules Iraq.

https://web.archive.org/web/20060421063832/http://www.cnn.co...

While Bush tried to portray himself as more isolationist, his advisors and appointees were not inline with those campaign promises, and indeed the history confirms that impression:

> “From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,” O’Neill said in the interview with “60 Minutes.”

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-jan-11-fg-oneil...

Similarly, in March of 2001 they were trying to line up companies interested in taking over Iraq’s oil production.

> Despite oil industry denials to Congress and Cheney’s claims of executive privilege–which led to a lawsuit that ultimately reached the Supreme Court–White House visitor logs revealed that Cheney’s Energy Policy Task Force met with approximately 300 groups and individuals from February to April 2001. The vast majority of these meetings were with representatives of the fossil fuels industry.

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/document/18216-national-security-a...

https://www.judicialwatch.org/oldsite/IraqOilFrgnSuitors.pdf

Bush played isolationist in the 2000 election, but the people he lined up in his actual gov't once he took power clearly were not. So it was always going to turn out the way it did, with him continuing the little quests his father and Reagan were on.

It's just the same internal power play within the GOP for decades. Explicitly imperialist adventurism, or a sad attempt isolationist foreign policy that never actually happens. See the way they're incoherent on Ukraine, now.

In that video, Gore said that, in the aftermath of the cold war, we should "step up to the plate" and provide leadership. He didn't say anything about wars or even the military, only Bush did!

This was during a period where there was hope for the former Soviet Union to become a free and open democracy with tremendous economic potential, not to mention the smaller, former Soviet states. Instead, we're right back where we were, with an imperialist Russia and puppet governments.

nothing of the kind was said in that video

I don't believe that.