Senator John McCain used the announcement of a limited military redeployment from Iraq to Afghanistan on Tuesday to attack his Democratic presidential rival’s “reckless” approach to foreign policy.
The Republican White House hopeful seized upon US President George W. Bush’s redeployment plans as a sign of “what success in our efforts there can look like.”
“American troops are returning home in success and with honor because of the improvements in security that followed implementation of the surge strategy,” McCain said in a statement. “Today’s announcement stands in clear contrast to the reckless approach long advocated by Senator [Barack] Obama. His proposal — to withdraw forces based on a political timetable, no matter the consequences for Iraq or American national security — is profoundly irresponsible.”
But Obama lambasted the plan to remove 8,000 troops from Iraq and send 4,500 to Afghanistan in the coming months as woefully insufficient to go after the extremists behind the attacks on the US of seven years ago.
McCain has repeatedly vowed to bring troops home with “victory and with honor.”
Obama has pledged to begin troop withdrawals immediately if elected, and foresees most combat troops being out of Iraq by late 2010.
Recent polls show two out of three Americans oppose the war and want to see a quick withdrawal, but many view the “surge” as a success story.
Obama said the “very modest” Bush plan would still extend a “war without end” in Iraq and insisted that McCain was bent on the same course after much expense in US lives and cash.
Speaking to reporters in Ohio, Obama accused Bush of “tinkering around the edges” and “kicking the can down the road to the next president.”
“At this point what it appears is that the next president will inherit a status quo that is still unstable,” Obama said.
He said that on Afghanistan, he was “glad that the president is moving in the direction of the policy that I have advocated for years.”
But “his plan comes up short — it is not enough troops, and not enough resources, with not enough urgency,” Obama said.
“What President Bush and Senator McCain don’t understand is that the central front in the war on terror is not in Iraq, and it never was — the central front is in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the terrorists who hit us on 9/11 are still plotting attacks seven years later,” Obama said.
“Now, the choice for the American people could not be clearer. John McCain has been talking a lot about change, but he’s running for four more years of the same foreign policy that we’ve had under George Bush,” Obama said.
McCain responded by saying Obama’s comments “demonstrate again his commitment to retreating from Iraq no matter what the cost.”
“His focus is on withdrawal — not on victory,” McCain said. “Senator Obama is utterly confused by the progress in the war in Iraq. He has minimized the success of the surge in stabilizing Iraq, but today said the reductions in violence exceeded expectations. The surge has greatly brought down violence, but Senator Obama would still oppose it, even in retrospect.”
Meanwhile, top US defense officials are telling Congress the US must be cautious as the Pentagon begins to cut troops in Iraq and focus more attention on the escalating fight in Afghanistan.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was set to tell lawmakers yesterday that there have been the dramatic security gains in Iraq over the past year but uncertainty remains and further troop reductions must be done with balance and care, Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said.
At the same time, Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were looking ahead to a broader effort in Afghanistan to beat back a Taliban resurgence and build up the fragile Afghan government.
Both were scheduled to testify before the House Armed Services Committee about Bush’s proposal to slowly reduce troop levels in Iraq and shift forces to Afghanistan.
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