SAN DIEGO — Senator Barack Obama is proposing that the United States deploy about 10,000 more troops to battle resurgent forces in Afghanistan, a plan intended to shift the American military focus from the Iraq war to the marked rise in violence from the Taliban.
“As president, I would pursue a new strategy, and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan,” Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, wrote in an Op-Ed article published on Monday in The New York Times. “We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more nonmilitary assistance to accomplish the mission there.”
Mr. Obama, who is among those who maintain that Afghanistan has been neglected because of the administration’s Iraq policy, has not previously offered such a specific plan for how to strengthen troop levels in Afghanistan. His proposal comes as he prepares to visit American commanders to assess progress in Iraq and needs in Afghanistan.
He said a new round of violence on Sunday, in which nine American soldiers died in fierce fighting with the Taliban in eastern Afghanistan, underscored the military challenges ahead for the United States. He said in a news conference here, “It’s very hard for us to bolster our forces in Afghanistan when we have such a heavy presence in Iraq.”
As the Bush administration considers withdrawing additional combat troops from Iraq in September, the military needs in Afghanistan are coming into sharper focus. Mr. Obama and other Democrats have said the balance of troops in the two war zones should be adjusted. At the same time, a downturn in Iraqi violence has complicated their arguments that a surge of American troops was flawed.
Continue reading the main story“I continue to believe that we’re under-resourced in Afghanistan,” Mr. Obama said on Sunday, speaking to reporters after addressing a Latino group here. “That is the real center for terrorist activity that we have to deal with and deal with aggressively.”
Later this summer, at a date that is not being disclosed for security reasons, Mr. Obama said he would be joined on a trip to Iraq, and possibly Afghanistan, by Senators Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, and Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island. All three senators share critical views of the administration’s Iraq policy.
The visit to Iraq, and his findings from briefings with military commanders, represents an important moment for Mr. Obama’s general election candidacy. While he said he still supports removing American combat troops within 16 months, he has struggled to explain how he would balance that plan if conditions on the ground were not suitable for that goal.
He said he was not going to Iraq to promote his withdrawal plan but to gather facts.
“We have one president at a time, so I’m not going to be traveling to negotiate anything or make promises,” Mr. Obama told reporters aboard his campaign plane on Saturday evening. “I am there to listen, but there is no doubt that my core position, which is that we need a timetable for withdrawal, not only to relieve pressure on our military, but also to deal with the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan and to put more pressure on the Iraqi government.”
Several Democratic supporters have criticized Mr. Obama for what they believe is a shift to the political center on a variety of issues, including the Iraq war. He addresses his critics and seeks to make clear in his Op-Ed essay for The Times that his goal to end the war, a central selling point of his primary campaign, has not changed.
“On my first day in office, I would give the military a new mission: ending this war,” Mr. Obama wrote, adding: “Ending the war is essential to meeting our broader strategic goals, starting in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the Taliban is resurgent and Al Qaeda has a safe haven. Iraq is not the central front in the war on terrorism, and it never has been.”
Senator John McCain, the likely Republican nominee, did not campaign on Sunday. But in a visit to his Southwest regional campaign headquarters in Phoenix he brought up the nine deaths in Afghanistan, describing the violence there and the downturn in the American economy, as “difficult times” and “great challenges,” according to a pool report.
Mr. Obama has not visited Iraq since his first trip there in January 2006, which Mr. McCain and Republicans have used to suggest that he is not sufficiently aware of the military progress that has been made. Mr. McCain has been to Iraq at least eight times. Asked about the criticism on Sunday, Mr. Obama grew defensive.
“John McCain has been in Congress 25 years — no doubt about that — if this is a longevity measure, then John McCain wins,” Mr. Obama said. “On the other hand, before we went into Iraq, I knew the difference between Shia and Sunni.”
The comment referred to a misstatement by Mr. McCain earlier this year, when he struggled to explain the distinction between the majority and minority ethnic groups in Iraq. On Sunday, a spokesman for Mr. McCain criticized Mr. Obama’s trip, suggesting that he is not entering it with an open mind to progress that has been made by the American forces.
“If Barack Obama believes that visiting Iraq and meeting with commanders will not give him any new perspective, then we can only assume he’s going just to smile for the cameras,” said Tucker Bounds, a spokesman for Mr. McCain.
Cover Called ‘Tasteless’
SAN DIEGO — As he flies around the country, Mr. Obama has a fondness for magazines. The New Yorker is often among the titles at the front of his campaign plane.
This week’s issue, though, is not likely to be on board.
The cover of the magazine depicts Mr. Obama wearing a turban, while he offers a fist bump to his gun-toting wife. An American flag singes behind them in the fireplace.
Asked about the drawing at a news conference here Sunday, Mr. Obama held his tongue, saying, “I have no response to that.” A campaign spokesman, Bill Burton, was not so measured.
“The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create,” Mr. Burton said in a statement. “But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive — and we agree.”
The cover of the July 21 issue is titled “The Politics of Fear.” A news release to promote the magazine said the artist, Barry Blitt, “satirizes the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the presidential election to derail Barack Obama’s campaign.”
Continue reading the main story