McCain's Afghanistan Policy

So yesterday John McCain said that thanks to the success of the surge in Iraq we can withdraw brigades from there and launch a new surge in Afghanistan, and also Barack Obama is a communist appeaser surrendercrat even thought his is precisely the policy he's been calling for for months. But now it seems McCain didn't really mean that and instead his plan is to ask NATO nicely to send more troops to Iraq.

Back in the real world, the question of enhanced allied contributions is yet another reason to favor a withdrawal timeline from Iraq. No European government that's at all concerned about public opinion wants to be seen as doing anything that amounts to facilitating the war in Iraq. Sending troops to Afghanistan so that President McCain can keep his 100 year occupation force at full strength for as long as possible isn't going to fly in Canada, Paris, Germany or anywhere else. But given a firm commitment to withdraw, and a real determination by the United States to focus on our Afghanistan/Pakistan issue in a serious way, you could see some allies stepping up and pitching in.