Iraqis' views on U.S. presidential race run gamut (extremists back Bush)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/10/27/MNGJE9GU4N1.DTL

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"If the U.S. Army suffered numerous humiliating losses, (Sen. John) Kerry would emerge as the superman of the American people," said Mohammad Amin Bashar, a leader of the Muslim Scholars Association, a hard-line clerical group that vocally supports the resistance. Bashar, a professor at Baghdad's Islamic University, said he and many of those opposed to the occupation are rooting for Bush's Democratic challenger.

"I think if Kerry wins he's going to try to get world support and United Nations involvement," he said at Baghdad's Umm al-Qura mosque. "You'll see a different situation in Iraq if the United Nations were involved."
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The most pro-Kerry, he said, are the former Saddam Hussein loyalists, Baath Party members and nationalist resistance fighters, who believe the United States might scale back its involvement in Iraq if Kerry wins, allowing them to re-enter civic life.

The most pro-Bush, he said, are the foreign extremists.

"They prefer Bush because he's a provocative figure, and the more they can push people to the extreme, the better for their case," he said.

That view was confirmed by an Iraqi resistance leader who calls himself Abu Jalal.
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...when the faux tough guy from Texas said "bring 'em on", they did.