Obama Calls Anew for More U.S. Troops in Afghanistan

AMMAN, Jordan _ Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Tuesday that his visit to Iraq and Afghanistan only underscored his desire to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq over a 16-month period and to add more forces in Afghanistan.

In a 45-minute news conference at the historic ruins of the Citadel in Jordan’s capital, Amman, Obama said that Afghanistan’s stability was deteriorating and the situation was “perilous and urgent.”

“That is where the 9-11 attacks were planned. And today in Afghanistan and the border region of Pakistan, al-Qaida and the Taliban are mounting a growing offensive against the security of the Afghan people, and increasingly the Pakistani people, while plotting new attacks against the United States,” Obama said.

He condemned an attack in Jerusalem earlier in the day outside the King David Hotel by a Palestinian driving a tractor and said it could complicate Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. He said that attacks such as that were likely to make the Israelis “want to dig in and simply think about their own security.”

“Today’s bulldozer attack is a reminder of what Israelis have courageously lived with on a daily basis for far too long,” Obama said. “I strongly condemn this attack and will always support Israel in confronting terrorism and pursuing lasting peace and security.”

Local Arab journalists pressed Obama to provide a detailed stance on Palestinian land rights or the politics of peace negotiations with Israelis, but the Illinois senator kept his answers fairly general. He said that ultimately it would be up to the two sides and that it was unrealistic to think that an American president could “snap his fingers” and broker a deal, but that he was committed to helping.

“My goal is to make sure that we work starting from the minute I’m sworn in to office to try to find some breakthroughs,” Obama said.

He sounded less than optimistic about any immediate prospects, saying that the Israeli government is “unsettled” and the Palestinians are divided between the Fatah and Hamas moments. “So it’s difficult for either side to make the bold move that would bring about peace,” he said.

Asked about his opposition to the increase of U.S. troops in Iraq, which contributed to growing stability there over the past year, Obama said, “I believe that the situation in Iraq is more secure than it was a year and a half ago. I think that the definition of success depends on how you look at it. Originally, the administration suggested that the key measure was whether it gave breathing room for political reconciliation.

“So far, I think we have not seen the kind of political reconciliation that’s going to bring about long-term stability in Iraq.”

John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, hammered Obama again Tuesday at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire for not supporting the U.S. troop buildup in Iraq.

McCain reminded voters that he had pushed for the extra troops at great political risk since initially he was opposing the president of his party. He repeated his line that he would rather lose an election than lose a war.

Now, he said, Obama is in the opposite position, sticking with his opposition to the troop increase to appeal to antiwar voters.

“Senator Obama would rather lose a war in order to win a political campaign,” McCain said to scattered applause.

In a conference call organized by the McCain campaign, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., emphasized Obama’s opposition to the U.S. troop buildup too, saying that it would be the right thing “for Senator Obama to say, ‘I was wrong.’ That’s how you learn.”

In an interview Monday night with ABC, Obama said he wouldn’t have voted to support the troop increase even if he’d known then what he knew now.

“These kinds of hypotheticals are very difficult,” he said in the interview. “Hindsight is 20-20. But I think that what I am absolutely convinced of is, at the time, we had to change the political debate because the view of the Bush administration was one that I just disagreed with and one that I continue to disagree with, (which) is to look narrowly at Iraq and not focus on these broader issues.”

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(Staff writer Steven Thomma contributed to this report from Washington.)

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