The presidential battleground shifted from Iraq to Afghanistan Tuesday as Barack Obama and John McCain dueled over what was once considered the “forgotten war.”
“Senator Obama will tell you we can’t win in Afghanistan without losing in Iraq,” McCain told a town hall in Albuquerque, N.M. “In fact, he has it exactly backwards. It is precisely the success of the surge in Iraq that shows us the way to succeed in Afghanistan.”
Recommended Stories
Obama refused to back down.
“Senator McCain said just months ago that ‘Afghanistan is not in trouble because of our diversion to Iraq.’ I could not disagree more,” Obama told an audience in the District. “And that’s why, as president, I will make the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban the top priority that it should be.”
For the first time since the Iraq war began more than five years ago, U.S. casualties there were lower than in Afghanistan in both May and June. Violence has dropped dramatically in Iraq while increasing in Afghanistan, where nine U.S. soldiers were killed in a single attack this week.
The presidential candidates’ positions on Afghanistan could prove crucial because the public is evenly divided between their positions on Iraq. An ABC News poll Tuesday showed that 49 percent of Americans favor McCain’s plan to make troop withdrawals contingent upon conditions on the ground, while 50 percent favor Obama’s timetable for withdrawal within 16 months.
In a new poll from CBS and the New York Times released Tuesday evening, 45 percent of respondents said they felt the war was going well, with a similar number who felt the effort was not on the right track. This time last year, only a quarter of respondents thought America was winning the war.
Obama has reiterated his commitment to that timetable in recent days after announcing earlier this month the he would “refine my policies” on troop withdrawals from Iraq. That comment triggered a backlash from liberals, prompting Obama to shore up his left flank by promising to end the war.
Still, Obama said Tuesday that he would make “tactical adjustments” to the withdrawal plan by consulting with military commanders on the ground.
McCain mocked Obama for locking himself into positions on Iraq and Afghanistan just days before he is scheduled to visit those nations.
“He is speaking today about his plans for Iraq and Afghanistan before he has even left, before he has talked to General [David] Petraeus, before he has seen the progress in Iraq, and before he has set foot in Afghanistan for the first time,” McCain said. “In my experience, fact-finding missions usually work best the other way around: First you assess the facts on the ground, then you present a new strategy.”
