Afghans call for new strategy as Obama visits

By Jonathon Burch

KABUL (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has called for more U.S. troops to be sent to Afghanistan, but many in the war-torn country doubt whether more soldiers will help stem the rising tide of violence.

Obama arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday on the first leg of a trip aimed at bolstering his foreign policy credentials ahead of the November 4 U.S. election.

"I don't think decreasing or increasing troop numbers is going to yield a long-term stability here or peace," Matt Waldman, policy adviser to Oxfam International, one of the largest development agencies in Afghanistan, told Reuters.

"I think there are other factors which are more important than that," he said.

Obama has called for sending two more brigades, or about 7,000 U.S. troops, to Afghanistan and shifting from what he called the Bush administration's "single-minded" focus on Iraq.

The United States has some 36,000 troops in Afghanistan, around a quarter of the number in Iraq, but still suffered more killed in Afghanistan than Iraq in both May and June this year.

More effective aid, support for rural development and working on peace and conflict resolution at a local level are the real priorities, Waldman said.

Foreign spending on aid and development is dwarfed by that spent on military operations in Afghanistan. The U.S. military alone now spends some $100 million a day fighting Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, aid agencies say, but spending on aid by all donors since 2001 amounts to only $7 million a day.