Candidates Find Some Accord on Afghanistan

"We must strengthen local tribes in the border areas who are willing to fight the foreign terrorists there -- the strategy used successfully in Anbar and elsewhere in Iraq," he said, speaking at a town hall meeting in Albuquerque. "We must convince Pakistanis that this is their war as much as it is ours. And we must empower the new civilian government of Pakistan to defeat radicalism with greater support for development, health and education."

Significant differences exist between the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the current ratio of troops to the population is vastly smaller. Afghanistan is a far more impoverished country with an opium-dominated economy, high illiteracy, extremely rugged terrain and a long, porous border with major insurgent sanctuaries in Pakistan. Such factors make it more difficult to protect the population against insurgent influence, develop effective Afghan forces and spread the government's authority.

McCain also pressed his attack on Obama's foreign policy experience and judgment yesterday, mocking him for laying out plans ahead of an upcoming fact-finding trip to Europe, the Middle East and Afghanistan.

"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," McCain said, adding that "fact-finding missions usually work best the other way around: First you assess the facts on the ground, then you present a new strategy."

Still, Obama aides said they believe the foreign policy debate has moved to Obama's turf. Anthony Lake, a White House national security adviser under President Bill Clinton, noted that in denouncing in 2002 the upcoming invasion of Iraq, Obama said that war would take the nation's attention away from the terrorists who plotted the Sept. 11 attacks. A year ago, in a speech on terrorism, Obama called for shifting at least two additional combat brigades to Afghanistan.

"John McCain discovered Afghanistan seemingly for the first time today," said Susan Rice, a senior Obama foreign policy adviser.

The candidates now have a similar vision for both conflicts -- drawing down troop levels in Iraq and building up strength in Afghanistan by 12,000 to 15,000 troops. But Obama sees that shift as the first step in a larger goal of withdrawing most combat forces from Iraq in 16 months. McCain said the shift of military personnel would be a sign of success in Iraq.

"Thanks to the success of the surge, these forces are becoming available, and our commanders in Afghanistan must get them," McCain said.

McCain softened that line as the day went on. Aboard his campaign bus, McCain suggested that some of those additional troops might have to come from NATO allies, and his aides said the U.S. troops could come from brigades that had either left Iraq or would do so by early next year.

On July 2, Mullen, the Joint Chiefs chairman, said he would like three additional combat brigades in Afghanistan, suggesting that those forces could be available in early 2009 if conditions in Iraq continue to improve. But a spate of suicide bombings in Iraq yesterday pointed up how fragile that idea may be.

McCain "needs to explain how he's going to stay at high levels in Iraq, surge in Afghanistan, and as he said last week bring down the deficit with savings from troop withdrawals," said Rice, the Obama aide. "His position is entirely riddled with internal contradictions that are embarrassing."

Staff writer Ann Scott Tyson contributed to this report.