Obama Slams Bush, McCain Over Redeployment Plan

AFP reports on Barack Obama's harsh words for President Bush and Senator McCain today regarding foreign policy:

Speaking to reporters here, Obama accused Bush of "tinkering around the edges" and "kicking the can down the road to the next president" with his plans to remove 8,000 US troops from Iraq in the coming months and send 4,500 to Afghanistan by January.

"At this point what it appears is that the next president will inherit a status quo that is still unstable," Obama said, adding that his Republican White House rival John McCain was bent on the same course as Bush...

..."What President Bush and Senator McCain don't understand is that the central front in the war on terror is not in Iraq, and it never was -- the central front is in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the terrorists who hit us on 9/11 are still plotting attacks seven years later," Obama said.

"Now, the choice for the American people could not be clearer. John McCain has been talking a lot about change, but he's running for four more years of the same foreign policy that we've had under George Bush.

AP has McCain's approving response to Bush's announcement:

Later, McCain issued a statement, saying Bush's announcement of troop withdrawals next year "demonstrates what success in our efforts there can look like," and argued that it "stands in clear contrast to the reckless approach long advocated by Senator Obama."

McCain also backed additional forces in Afghanistan, and said, "Senator Obama believes we must lose in Iraq to win in Afghanistan." Obama has said Bush and McCain don't understand that the central front in the war on terror is Afghanistan and Pakistan, not Iraq.