[Peace-discuss] From the "peace" candidate...

[C. G. Estabrook]

	*Obama says Afghanistan 'a war that we have to win'*
	By GLEN JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer

Contending that the U.S. is not pursuing a sound strategy for keeping Americans 
safe, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Tuesday that fighting 
al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan would be his top priority after ending 
the war in Iraq.

"This is a war that we have to win," Obama said in remarks prepared for delivery 
at the International Trade Center in Washington.

In a major speech on Iran and national security, Obama said he would also secure 
nuclear weapons and materials from terrorists and rogue nations, achieve "true 
energy security," and rebuild the nation's international alliances.

The speech sets the stage for Obama's upcoming visit to Iraq and offers a 
high-profile explanation of his opposition to the war and his pledge to complete 
a U.S. troop pullout within 16 months of becoming president. It also gives him a 
forum for criticizing President Bush and his rival for the presidency, 
Republican John McCain.

"By any measure, our single-minded and open-ended focus on Iraq is not a sound 
strategy for keeping America safe," Obama said. "In fact — as should have been 
apparent to President Bush and Sen. McCain — the central front in the war on 
terror is not Iraq, and it never was."

Obama said the Bush strategy that McCain supports has placed the burden for U.S. 
foreign policy on American military. National security policy should go well 
beyond Baghdad, he said, and involve allies around the world. He focused on 
Afghanistan and Pakistan, saying that if the U.S. were attacked again, it likely 
would be from the same region where the Sept. 11 attacks were planned.

"Sen. McCain said — just months ago — that Afghanistan is not in trouble because 
of our diversion to Iraq. I could not disagree more. Our troops and our NATO 
allies are performing heroically in Afghanistan, but I have argued for years 
that we lack the resources to finish the job because of our commitment to Iraq," 
Obama said.

Later in the day, Obama was expected to conduct a series of television 
interviews to bolster his remarks.

McCain planned to respond during a town-hall meeting in Albuquerque, N.M., but 
his staff released his remarks before the event.

"Sen. Obama is departing soon on a trip abroad that will include a fact-finding 
mission to Iraq and Afghanistan," according to McCain. "And I note that he is 
speaking today about his plans for Iraq and Afghanistan before he has even left, 
before he has talked to General Petraeus, before he has seen the progress in 
Iraq, and before he has set foot in Afghanistan for the first time. 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."

Meanwhile, the New York Daily News reported that the Obama campaign altered its 
Web site to remove a statement that Bush's surge of troops in Iraq "is not 
working." Over the weekend, the site was changed to describe an "improved 
security situation" at the cost of U.S. lives.

Campaign aide Wendy Morigi told the newspaper that Obama is "not softening his 
criticism of the surge. We regularly update the Web site to reflect changes in 
current events."

The flurry of activity comes a day after an Obama op-ed piece in the New York 
Times that called for the additional Afghanistan brigades and argued the U.S. 
faces a growing threat from a resurgent al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

McCain planned an address Thursday focused on Afghanistan. Nine U.S. soldiers 
were killed and 14 injured in a militant attack Sunday, the military's highest 
death toll there in three years.

While he has accused Obama of favoring surrender in Iraq by outlining a troop 
withdrawal timetable, McCain told reporters on Monday, "I think we need to do 
whatever is necessary (in Afghanistan) and that could entail more troops."

Obama, a freshman senator from Illinois, has visited Iraq only once and has 
never been to Afghanistan. He plans to visit both during a trip that will also 
take him to Jordan and Israel in the Middle East, as well as European capitals 
in Germany, France and Great Britain.

He will be accompanied on the trip by Sens. Chuck Hagel and Jack Reed. Hagel, a 
Nebraska Republican, is a Vietnam War veteran, while Reed is a West Point 
graduate and former Army Ranger. Both have been mentioned as possible Obama vice 
presidential running mates.

McCain, an Arizona senator and former Vietnam prisoner of war, has lambasted 
Obama for his lack of travel in the region and for not meeting in Iraq with the 
top U.S. commander, Army Gen. David Petraeus.

Obama has been trumpeting the fact that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki 
said last week his country wants some type of timetable for a withdrawal of 
American forces included in a deal needed to keep U.S. troops in Iraq after a 
U.N. mandate expires at year's end.

Bush opposes a withdrawal timetable, arguing it will embolden insurgents and 
prompt them to lay in wait for a U.S. departure.

Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press.

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	*Barack Obama purges Web site critique of surge in Iraq*
	BY JAMES GORDON MEEK, DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama's campaign scrubbed his presidential Web
site over the weekend to remove criticism of the U.S. troop "surge"
in Iraq, the Daily News has learned.

The presumed Democratic nominee replaced his Iraq issue Web page,
which had described the surge as a "problem" that had barely reduced
violence.

"The surge is not working," Obama's old plan stated, citing a lack of
Iraqi political cooperation but crediting Sunni sheiks - not U.S.
military muscle - for quelling violence in Anbar Province.

The News reported Sunday that insurgent attacks have fallen to the
fewest since March 2004.

Obama's campaign posted a new Iraq plan Sunday night, which cites an
"improved security situation" paid for with the blood of U.S. troops
since the surge began in February 2007.

It praises G.I.s' "hard work, improved counterinsurgency tactics and
enormous sacrifice."

Campaign aide Wendy Morigi said Obama is "not softening his criticism
of the surge. We regularly update the Web site to reflect changes in
current events."

GOP rival John McCain zinged Obama as a flip-flopper. "The major
point here is that Sen. Obama refuses to acknowledge that he was
wrong," said McCain, adding that Obama "refuses to acknowledge that
it [the surge] is succeeding."

jmeek at nydailynews.com
New York Daily News - July 15, 2008
<http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/
2008/07/14/2008-07-14_barack_obama_purges_web_site_critique_of.html>

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