Soccer Dad

What's Up with Putin?

Instapundit notes an interesting story that President Putin claims that Russian intelligence uncovered post-9/11 Iraqi terror plots against the United States. As Jonah Goldberg notes

Now I don't trust Putin in the slightest. But if he's lying that's interesting and if he's telling the truth, that's interesting.

But what's going on? This is the second time in recent weeks that Putin seems to be supporting President Bush *politically.* Recently he said that Democrats had no right to criticize President Bush over Iraq because President Clinton did the same thing in Kosovo.
(I hope that Putin wasn't one of the world leaders whose support Kerry was counting on!)
Now Putin - at a time that the Democrats and their allies in the media are criticizing President Bush unfairly - comes along and says that President Bush's concerns about Iraqi invovlement in terror were valid.
This support is well and good, but there has to be something else going on. If Putin is telling the truth about the American fears of Iraqi terror then why did he obstruct America's war efforts? Was the money from the Oil for Food program that good? And if he's lying, why would he be boosting President Bush? As Jonah Goldberg notes, either way is interesting. (Either way it would appear that trusworthiness that President Bush saw in Putin's "soul" must have been an illusion.)

Posted by SoccerDad at June 18, 2004 02:09 PM | TrackBack