Topic: Let's Get Osama

New York Daily News
May 7, 2007
Shift U.S. troops to Afghanistan, say 2 Dem Prez hopefuls
By James Gordon Meek, Daily News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Two Democrats running for President said yesterday America should withdraw its forces from Iraq and stick them in Afghanistan, where Al Qaeda is waging a guerrilla war and planning strikes on the homeland.
Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut said getting "bogged down" in Iraq has left Al Qaeda a safe "epicenter" in the lawless region along the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"Why aren't we back in Afghanistan?" he said on "Fox News Sunday."
"Why not go to the place where Al Qaeda really poses some threats? Why not go after Osama Bin Laden where we know he's hiding out?"
John Edwards also said U.S. troops around Baghdad should be sent east to fight Bin Laden's henchmen.
"We're probably going to need some additional troops in Afghanistan right next-door, given what's happened in Afghanistan," the former North Carolina senator told ABC's "This Week."
Edwards said if he wins the presidency, the only U.S. forces stuck in Iraq will be a few troops "to guard the embassy."
Yesterday, two American soldiers were killed by an Afghan National Army soldier outside a Kabul prison.
Another reminder of the forgotten war came on Saturday with the release of the latest slick video speech by Al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri, who some counterterrorism officials say is in Afghanistan.
"We're weakened there. They're regaining their footing in the very place we should have been going to in the first place," Dodd said.
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) agreed, telling CNN's "Late Edition": "What we have to do is continue to focus on trying to eliminate Al Qaeda. That's mainly in the Afghanistan-Pakistan area, but all around the world."