Democrats hit Bush on troop plan for both wars

By Jeremy Pelofsky

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's plan to modestly reduce U.S. troops in Iraq and send a few thousand others to Afghanistan drew criticism on Tuesday from top Democrats, led by presidential hopeful Barack Obama.

Obama and other Democrats argued the Pentagon should shift more quickly to Afghanistan, where NATO says it needs 12,000 more troops, to combat escalating violence.

Bush, an unpopular president fighting an unpopular war in Iraq, said a dramatic drop in violence in that war zone would allow the U.S. military to refocus its efforts on Afghanistan, where he acknowledged that "huge challenges" remain.

He said some 8,000 combat and support personnel would return from Iraq by February 2009 while a fresh Marine battalion and an Army combat brigade totaling just over 4,000 would go to Afghanistan by January to respond to soaring attacks by Islamist militants.

"For all the good work we have done in that country, it is clear we must do even more," Bush said at the National Defense University. "As we learned in Iraq, the best way to restore the confidence of the people is to restore basic security -- and that requires more troops."

The drop in violence in Iraq will also allow other countries with troops there to start pulling out. A senior U.S. official said the number of countries with troops in Iraq would drop from about 29 to "a handful" by the end of the year.

But for the United States, any large-scale shift in forces in both Iraq and Afghanistan will be left to Bush's successor -- either Republican Sen. John McCain or Obama. Bush will leave office in January after the November 4 election.

NATO commanders in Afghanistan have said they need about 12,000 more troops to quell violence, and experts agree a larger force is needed. But experts also warn Washington should not lose focus on Iraq.

Obama, who has pledged to withdraw combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office, said Bush's plan takes too long to shift resources to Afghanistan and its border region with Pakistan, where U.S. officials say they believe al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is hiding.

'NOT ENOUGH URGENCY'

"His plan comes up short -- it is not enough troops, and not enough resources, with not enough urgency," Obama told reporters in Ohio, a hotly contested state in the election.

"I will finally have a comprehensive strategy to finish the job in Afghanistan -- with more troops, more training of Afghan security forces ... and more focus on eliminating the Taliban and al Qaeda sanctuary along the Pakistan border," he said.

A senior U.S. official briefing reporters after Bush's speech said the extra American troops sent to Afghanistan would be a "bit of a down payment on what will eventually be an ... even larger U.S. commitment."

McCain has backed Bush's strategy of refusing to set a timeline for pulling troops out of Iraq and withdrawing forces only as security conditions in the war zone allow. But he has also called for more combat troops for Afghanistan.

"It is clear that we need additional forces in Afghanistan, and I support the new deployments," McCain said. "Sen. Obama believes we must lose in Iraq to win in Afghanistan. I want to win in Iraq and in Afghanistan."