I think the deciding point was Saddam’s plot to kill W’s father when he visited Kuwait, and that wouldn’t have influenced Gore. The Iraq War was a strategic disaster that unleashed Iran.
And frankly I held my tongue on 9/11, but the fact is it did happen on Cheney/Bush’s watch after they were in office for nine months. That was plenty of time. But of course Bush and Clinton were pretty much the same, so I wouldn’t have expected Bush to do anything differently than Clinton.