Here is what Admiral Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff and certainly no left-winger, said with respect to the dilemma with troop levels in Afghanistan and Iraq recently.

"What I said in my statement is also important as a part of that calculus, which is, I don't have troops I can reach for, brigades I can reach to send into Afghanistan until I have a reduced requirement in Iraq...unlike the insurgency in Iraq, we don't have enough troops there to hold." http://thinkprogress.org/2008/07/02/mull en-cant-have-more-troops-in-afghanistan- until-i-have-a-reduced-requirement-in-ir aq/

"In the last six or seven months, we have a put a tremendous amount of focus on Afghanistan, and I think rightfully so. It is an economy-of-force campaign, and by definition, that means we don't have enough forces there...I am constrained on forces I can generate quite frankly because of Iraq. Afghanistan is a significant challenge and is going to take a significant period of time." http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/30/mcca in-afghanistan-iraq/

Admiral Mullen sounds closer to Obama than he does to General Petreus or McCain on the issue of troop presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.  McCain has dismissed arguments in favor of reducing the troop presence in Iraq to deal with the threat by arguing that Afghanistan and Iraq are not an either/or proposition.

With violence increasing in Afghanistan (it has increased the last four months) and the Taliban getting as strong as it has been in the last seven years, isn't it time for McCain and Petraeus to "refine" their positions with respect to Afghanistan?  Did McCain visit Afghanistan in his last sojourn to the Middle East?  

How does Petraeus get around Crocker's admission to Joe Biden that it would be better for US interests to go after Al Qaeda in Afghanistan than Al Qaeda in Iraq if he has no way of getting more troops to that region without redeploying troops from Iraq?

Obama should talk more about the increasing threat that is Afghanistan; I wonder if Obama will be stressing Afghanistan more once he talks to the commanders on the ground there.