General Petraeus' Comments Contradict McCain's Policy

In this article, Patrick Barry writes about how General Petraeus' comments on insurgents in Afghanistan contradicts McCain's stance that the surge which he believes was so successful in Iraq ought to be repeated in Afghanistan.

Barry concludes saying, "A key criteria for assessing both candidates' fitness for commander-in-chief is whether they have a strategy that can arrest this devolving problem. Barack Obama has committed himself time and again to a comprehensive plan for restoring a modicum of stability to Afghanistan, one that depends on a re-deployment from Iraq. General Petraeus too, in his new role as head of Central Command, appears to have quickly broadened his strategic view, and has begun to pay Afghanistan its due attention. But John McCain is stuck, insisting on looking at this national security crisis through the prism of Iraq, repeating the same fixation, the same insistence, the same failures that have marked the last eight years."

Barry's article is particularly interesting because he makes the point that even for all of McCain's experience (and it is evident that he has had more experience fighting wars than Obama), he may still not be the more qualified person to become Commander in Chief because of his insistence on a particular strategy without due attention to the unique requirements and circumstances of a new situation.