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Washington Senators Barack Obama and John McCain shifted their foreign policy focus from the future of US military involvement in Iraq to the deteriorating war in Afghanistan, with both White House hopefuls pledging thousands of additional troops and a large-scale infusion of aid for the Afghan conflict.
In doing so, the two men offered sharply different assessments of the Iraq war and its impact on the effort in Afghanistan, with Obama saying Iraq has been a distraction from the war on terrorism and McCain calling it a proving ground for the tactics needed to beat back a resurgent Taliban.
After weeks of verbal combat over Iraq, the similarities in the candidates' Afghanistan prescriptions were striking. Both spoke broadly of building regional alliances to combat terrorism, transforming South Asia "from a theatre for regional rivalries into a commons for regional cooperation," as McCain put it. Tuesday was the first time McCain suggested moving troops from Iraq to what has been called the forgotten war, and his shift brought him in line with the direction long advocated by Obama.
A narrow majority of Americans believe that the war in Afghanistan has been worth the costs and that the fight against the Taliban and Al Qaida in the region must be won to triumph in the broader war on terrorism, according to a Washington Post poll released this week. Most Americans do not believe the same holds for Iraq.
- Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service
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