
Senator Barack Obama spent his first day in Afghanistan yesterday visiting the troops, talking to soldiers, and speaking with their commanders. Today he met privately with President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan. After talking to both sides, his assessment is that the situation in Afghanistan is both precarious and urgent. He said that the US has to start planning to put more troops in Afghanistan now. Obama: "For at least a year now, I have called for two additional brigades, perhaps three," he said. "I think it's very important that we unify command more effectively to coordinate our military activities. But military alone is not going to be enough. "The Afghan government needs to do more. But we have to understand that the situation is precarious and urgent here in Afghanistan. And I believe this has to be our central focus, the central front, on our battle against terrorism." Logan: "Why does it have to be the central focus? What is so critical to US interests here?" Obama: "This is where they can plan attacks. They have sanctuary here. They are gathering huge amounts of money as a consequence of the drug trade in the region. And so that global network is centered in this area. And I think one of the biggest mistakes we've made strategically after 9/11 was to fail to finish the job here, focus our attention here. We got distracted by Iraq. "And despite what the Bush Administration has argued, I don't think there's any doubt that we were distracted from our efforts not <b>...</b>
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