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Polity
Article by: Reuters
Published: 10 Sep 2008
Democrats hit Bush on troop plan
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush's plan to keep most U.S. troops in Iraq and shift a few thousand to Afghanistan drew quick criticism on Tuesday from top Democrats, led by presidential hopeful Barack Obama who said it was not enough to combat escalating violence in Afghanistan.Bush, an unpopular president fighting an unpopular war in Iraq, said a dramatic drop in violence in that war zone would allow the U.S. military to shift its efforts to Afghanistan, where he acknowledged that "huge challenges" remain.

He announced some 8,000 combat and support personnel would return from Iraq by February 2009 while a fresh Marine battalion and an Army combat brigade would go to Afghanistan by January to respond to soaring attacks by Islamist militants.

"For all the good work we have done in that country, it is clear we must do even more," Bush said at the National Defence University. "As we learned in Iraq, the best way to restore the confidence of the people is to restore basic security -- and that requires more troops."

But any large-scale shift in U.S. forces in the two wars will be left to his successor -- either Republican Sen. John McCain or Obama. Bush will leave office in January after the November 4 election.

Obama, who has pledged to withdraw combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office, said Bush's plan takes too long to shift resources to Afghanistan and its border region with Pakistan, where U.S. officials say they believe al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is hiding.

'NOT ENOUGH URGENCY'

"His plan comes up short -- it is not enough troops, and not enough resources, with not enough urgency," Obama told reporters in Ohio, a hotly contested state in the election.

"I will finally have a comprehensive strategy to finish the job in Afghanistan -- with more troops, more training of Afghan security forces ... and more focus on eliminating the Taliban and al Qaeda sanctuary along the Pakistan border," the Illinois senator added.

McCain has backed Bush's strategy of refusing to set a timeline for pulling troops out of Iraq and withdrawing forces only as security conditions in the war zone allow. But he has also called for more combat troops for Afghanistan.

McCain criticized Obama for opposing Bush's decision to send 30,000 troops to Iraq last year under a policy known as the "surge," which was credited with helping to curb violence.

"It is clear that we need additional forces in Afghanistan, and I support the new deployments," the Arizona senator said in a statement. "Sen. Obama believes we must lose in Iraq to win in Afghanistan. I want to win in Iraq and in Afghanistan."

Obama and McCain are in a statistical dead heat in the race for the White House with the economy and two wars the top voter concerns. The United States has 146,000 troops in Iraq and 33,000 in Afghanistan.

MORE THAN TROOPS NEEDED

Bush's recommendations followed advice from top U.S. defence officials, including Defence Secretary Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Mike Mullen and Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of forces in Iraq.

Bush, who spent the afternoon visiting with wounded U.S. troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Centre, said Petraeus held open the door to additional troop withdrawals from Iraq in the first half of 2009 but also acknowledged that the gains there were "fragile and reversible."

Security analysts agreed, and some cautioned against the Pentagon losing focus on Iraq.

"As important as Afghanistan remains, Iraq is of far greater strategic importance to the United States," said Kenneth Pollack, analyst at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.

"The United States has not won in Iraq; as much as the situation has improved, the country is far from sustainable stability and large numbers of American troops are required for a broad range of responsibilities."

Others said that as politicians were pressing for more troops for Afghanistan, they should not fail to address Taliban and al Qaeda safe havens inside neighbouring Pakistan.

Democrats in Congress including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vietnam War veteran Sen. John Kerry also criticized Bush's plan. The House Armed Services Committee will on Wednesday hear from top military and Pentagon officials about the two wars.

Kerry, the failed Democratic presidential hopeful in 2004, said one brigade for Afghanistan was "woefully insufficient given the deteriorating situation there, and far short of the three additional brigades that our commanders in Afghanistan have said they urgently need."