DUSHANBE, Tajikistan (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that terrorists are aiming to derail President Bush's chances at re-election through their attacks in Iraq.
Putin noted that his government continued to disagree with Bush on Washington's invasion of Iraq, which Russia strongly opposed as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.
"I consider the activities of terrorists in Iraq are not as much aimed at coalition forces but more personally against President Bush," Putin said at a news conference after a regional summit in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.
"International terrorism has as its goal to prevent the election of President Bush to a second term," he said. "If they achieve that goal, then that will give international terrorism a new impulse and extra power."
Putin is right on target. Palestinian terrorists have already endorsed Kerry.
And that makes perfect sense. If you were a terrorist who would you rather have lead the country who is your biggest enemy? The man who fights terrorism by invading the countries where the terrorists live and defeating them on their own turf or the man who would battle terrorism with UN sanctions and diplomacy?
Terrorists have already survived for decades when faced with the type of solutions the UN has provided. Bush's approach is new. The terrorists would love to turn back the clock to the old way of doing things.
Update:
Another endorsement from Kerry, this time from a terrorist sympathizer (via The Jawa Report):
KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysia's former prime minister has urged Muslims in America to vote for US Senator John Kerry in the Nov 2 presidential election, saying President George W. Bush has been 'the cause of the tragedies' across the Muslim world.
'Vote Bush out of office,' Dr Mahathir Mohamad said in an open letter dated Oct 15 to America's Muslim community. 'It is truly an ibadah (act of devotional worship) that you perform.'
'In the past four years, during the Presidency of George W. Bush, the Muslims and their countries have suffered oppression and humiliation as never before in the history of Islam,' he said in the letter published on IslamiCity.com, a California-based website. ...
'There is an obvious connection between the sufferings of the Muslims and the policies and thinking of Bush,' the letter said.
'Bush has shown that despite his protests, he is the cause of the tragedies in Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq,' he said.
'I would like to appeal to you, the Muslim citizens and voters of America, to be united and to cast your votes against Bush, in the name of justice, in the name of Islam.' ....
Dr Mahathir retired last year mired in a controversy after telling a summit of Muslim leaders that 'Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them'.