CRAWFORD, Texas - US President George W. Bush and his allies are increasingly warning voters that Democratic White House hopeful John Kerry is undermining the war on terrorism and US-led efforts in Iraq.

Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi at the White House on Thursday, Bush said Kerry's criticisms of his handling of Iraq "can embolden an enemy" and "can dispirit the Iraqi people."

Vice President Dick Cheney warned on September 7 that if Kerry wins the November 2 election "then the danger is that we'll get hit again, that we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating" and Kerry will not respond strongly.

Endorsing Bush's reelection at the Republican National Convention on September 1, Democratic Senator Zell Miller charged that the very act of campaigning against Bush in an election year was unpatriotic and dangerous.

"At the same time young Americans are dying in the sands of Iraq, in the mountains of Afghanistan, our nation is being torn apart and made weaker because of the Democrats' manic obsession to bring down our commander in chief," Miller said.

But while Kerry supporters rage at Bush backers' claims that terrorists are rooting for the Democrat or would benefit if he becomes the new US commander-in-chief, US political history shows it's hardly a new tactic.

In 1944, as World War II raged, one of Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt's allies, Senator Samuel Jackson of Indiana, reportedly warned that voting for the president's rival would help the Nazis and imperial Japan.

"How many battleships would a Democratic defeat be worth to Tojo? How many Nazi legions would it be worth to Hitler?" he was quoted as saying. "We must not allow the American ballot box to be made Hitler's secret weapon."

After Communists took power in China in 1949, through the 1950s, Democrats and Republicans traded rounds of bitter accusations over "who lost China?"

In more recent history, the Bush administration has accused its Democratic critics of siding with the enemy since just after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

In December 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft said tactics by foes of the USA Patriot Act "only aid terrorists" and "give ammunition to America's enemies and pause to America's friends."

Nearly one year later, Bush himself tarred critics of his version of legistlation to create a Department of Homeland Security -- which he originally had opposed -- as "not interested in the security of the American people."

Earlier this month, House Speaker Dennis Hastert told fellow Republicans that terrorists "would be more apt to go (for) somebody who would file a lawsuit with the World Court or something rather than respond with troops."

Asked whether he thought al-Qaeda would operate better with Kerry in the White House, Hastert replied: "That's my opinion, yes."

While Cheney backed off his remarks that a Kerry victory would embolden al-Qaeda, he later said: "We've gone on the offensive in the war on terror, and the president's opponent, Senator Kerry, doesn't seem to approve."

US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage pointed to a recent surge in deadly violence in Iraq and said extremists there "are trying to influence the election against President Bush.

White House officials have declined to condemn such remarks.

© Copyright 2004 AFP

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