Candidates want Afghan buildup
Obama, McCain remain at odds on Iraq front
WASHINGTON - Barack Obama and John McCain both called yesterday for significant surges in US troop levels in Afghanistan as the two presumptive presidential nominees competed for voters concerned about national security. But they remained diametrically opposed on when to withdraw troops from Iraq.
Obama wants to draw down most of the 140,000 US troops from Iraq and shift at least 10,000 soldiers to Afghanistan, which he said is the key battleground in the war on terror.
McCain, who earlier in the campaign suggested using more NATO and Afghan forces to fight the resurgent Taliban, said for the first time that he would support sending about 15,000 more troops to Afghanistan, while not specifying how many would come from the United States.
Obama, who is preparing to make his first visit to Afghanistan and his first to Iraq since January 2006, told a Washington audience that the United States should withdraw troops from Iraq and focus on Afghanistan because that is where the Sept. 11 attack was planned. The focus on Iraq "distracts us from ev ery threat that we face and so many opportunities we could seize," the Democratic senator from Illinois said, while noting that the United States has five times more troops in Iraq than Afghanistan.
"This war diminishes our security, our standing in the world, our military, our economy, and the resources that we need to confront the challenges of the 21st century," he added. "By any measure, our single-minded and open-ended focus on Iraq is not a sound strategy for keeping America safe."
McCain, the Republican senator from Arizona, answered minutes later in New Mexico that Obama has the strategy "exactly backwards." McCain said that the war in Iraq is being won as a result of a surge in US troops that McCain backed and Obama opposed. "It is precisely the success of the surge in Iraq that shows us the way to succeed in Afghanistan," McCain said at a town hall meeting in Albuquerque. "It is by applying the tried and true principles of counter-insurgency used in the surge - which Senator Obama opposed - that we will win in Afghanistan."
"I know how to win wars," McCain added, stressing what he sees as his advantage as Vietnam War hero and veteran senator involved in defense debates. "And if I'm elected president, I will turn around the war in Afghanistan, just as we have turned around the war in Iraq, with a comprehensive strategy for victory."
While Obama and McCain staked out their positions on Iraq months ago, the back-to-back speeches yesterday provided the clearest signal yet that Afghanistan - where the military situation is worsening and where US and NATO deaths exceeded those in Iraq in both May and June - has also become a key battleground in the 2008 campaign.
Obama's speech, which was billed by his campaign as a major foreign policy address in which he also called for securing all nuclear weapons from terrorists and rogue states, moving toward energy security, and rebuilding America's alliances, was an effort to make inroads into McCain's national security turf.
A
McCain has argued that the surge of troops in Iraq that he championed has turned the tide of the war, while warning that an early withdrawal might enable insurgents to wipe out US gains. Obama wants to pull out most troops over a 16-month period, believing that would compel Iraqi factions to come up with political solutions that would end the war. While Obama has acknowledged that the surge has improved security, he said the war was unnecessary and that US resources could be better used in Afghanistan to fight the war on terror.
Obama said his plan for withdrawing troops from Iraq would give him more than enough soldiers to dispatch at least two brigades, or about 10,000 troops, to Afghanistan. Such an increase would give him leverage to persuade other countries to supply additional troops, he said.
McCain said yesterday that US commanders would get their requested three brigades totaling about 15,000 troops because of a drawdown in Iraq. The wording of McCain's speech implied that all of the new forces would be US troops.
However, McCain's foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, said in a later telephone interview that the brigades might be a mixture of US, NATO, and other troops.
"What Senator McCain has made clear is we need the additional forces," Scheunemann said. "The most immediate way to get them is to ask our allies for more forces."
He said that if McCain is elected president, he would have US troops available in early 2009 who could be sent to Afghanistan.
There are about 32,000 US troops in Afghanistan. The Bush administration has increased US troop levels in Afghanistan by a few thousand this year.
Violence in Afghanistan has increased significantly this year, including a 40 percent spike in attacks by the Taliban and Al Qaeda in eastern provinces. Taliban fighters killed nine US soldiers in an attack on a base in northern Afghanistan on Sunday, the worst such incident against US forces in three years.
Asked about Obama's speech, President Bush told reporters yesterday that both Iraq and Afghanistan are important fronts in the war on terror, but that the battle is "going better" in Iraq.
"Afghanistan is a tough fight" because the central government was "just ravaged by previous wars" and because of a tough and brutal enemy, Bush said at a White House news conference.
McCain's call for three additional brigades in Afghanistan follows earlier statements that an increase in NATO troop levels and training of local forces were returning the country to normalcy.
But yesterday, McCain said that while NATO forces have almost been doubled since January 2007, security has still "deteriorated." McCain said he can turn around the situation in Afghanistan with the troop surge and a better command structure, as well as the appointment of a war "czar" who focuses only on Afghanistan.
McCain also criticized Obama for unveiling his plans for Iraq and Afghanistan before leaving on his tour of the region and talking with US commanders on the ground, "before he's seen the progress in Iraq, and before he has set foot in Afghanistan for the first time."
Obama, in an interview that aired last night on CNN's "Larry King Live," said McCain was confusing tactics with strategy. He said the trip to Iraq would not change his mind about the need to withdraw most troops.
"I am absolutely convinced that strategically, it is time for us to bring this war to an end," Obama said.
Michael Kranish can be reached at kranish@globe.com.
