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Political statements by Barack Obama and John McCain, as well as statements by government leaders and a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan, remind us of the reality of the Islamic threat and a seemingly inevitable conflagration. During a recent campaign stop, the Illinois senator spoke of the scarcity of military resources in Afghanistan, where he says U.S. forces are undermanned, lumping it with his campaign centerpiece: his opposition to the Iraq War. McCain and his foreign policy team spoke of Iraq's importance in the war on terrorism and how important it is we not take our eye off the ball there; a former fighter pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war, McCain echoed the Bush administration's strategy of getting NATO and Pakistan to ante up till Iraq's leaders can reach a political solution and U.S. forces can stand down. It is hard to imagine how the two candidates' positions could be any more dissimilar.

On paper, the numbers are as disparate as the positions. The United States has about 140,000 troops in Iraq where, as recently as two weeks ago, a Pentagon report said another 30,000 are headed for in 2009, a move that would keep 15 combat brigades in Iraq through 2009. However, for Afghanistan, where only 32,000 troops are stationed, there are no hard numbers yet on any increase in the number of forces there, although there is broad consensus they are desperately needed and Defense Secretary Gates has assured NATO allies he would send more in response to the growing violence. What is more, as Al-Qaeda in Iraq is dwindling, attacks are down to 2004 levels whether three more active-duty Army brigade combat teams, one Army National Guard brigade and two more Marine regimental combat units will still be needed next year in Iraq remains unclear.

The gulf persists. Fears of emboldened Islamic extremists, Iraq's vulnerability to both Iran and Al-Qaeda if the US pulls out, loom large in McCain's statements: that if you "lose" Iraq you essentially hand the enemy a victory it didn't earn, that neighboring countries will fall under the sway of Iran's ever-growing hegemony in the region, and that fundamentalist terrorism will have yet another base from which to deliver its chief export: terrorism. As evidence of real military progress in Iraq continues and maintaining a hard-fought stability becomes paramount, the McCain campaign has seized on flip-flops by Obama on the issue of troop withdrawals, noting his recent statements that he would continue to "refine" his position

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