Despite jabs at each other, McCain and Obama have similar plans for Iraq and Afghanistan. They both plan to reroute the forces in Iraq to Afghanistan with the difference that Obama wants to do as part of the 16 months U.S. forces withdrawal process from Iraq. Additionally, both are “pledging thousands of troops and a large-scale infusion of aid for the Afghan conflict,” along with non-military aid to help Afghanistan and Pakistan in establishing democratic governments.

One major difference though is both presidential contenders evaluation of the Iraq war. Obama repeated his opinion that it was a misguided war and should have been concentrated on Afghanistan and Pakistan where the Taliban was and still is very active, whereas McCain sees the Iraq war as a “proving ground for the tactics needed to beat back the resurgent Taliban.”

SIMILAR STANCES ON AFGHANISTAN FORCES
By Jonathan Weisman and Juliet Eilperin (Washington Post in AJC 7/16/08)
Abstract by Johana Nadler