McCain assails Obama for lack of experience

He said factors including “al Qaida overplaying their hand” and the U.S. “funneling money to the sheiks to take care of their jobs in return for good behavior” had helped in bringing reduction of violence to Iraq in recent months.

“For several reasons things are trending the right way in Iraq,” he said.

Taylor added that he did not know if the U.S. needed to invest more troops in Afghanistan. “It really is a mixed bag. I’m very much troubled by the resurgence of the drug trade in Afghanistan,” he said. “I had someone from the State Department admit that Karzai’s brother is one of the biggest dealers over there. One of the things the president of that country ought to be doing to telling his own brother to get out of the drug business.”

As for the future of nation-building in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Taylor said, “Let’s face it, Iraq has much better chance because of the oil revenues” of becoming “a self-sufficient nation.” He added Iraq had water resources and fertile soil. ”That’s good place to be, if they could just get their political situation on line.”

In contrast, Taylor said, Afghanistan has the disadvantages of being “a dirt-poor country” and “its history has been as a place where trade flowed through, but not much was done there.”

Taylor has not endorsed any of the Democratic presidential contenders.

Murtha's alarm over Afghanistan
Another top House Democrat, Defense Appropriations subcommittee chairman Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania said Tuesday he was “very worried about Afghanistan. What I’m worried about is the Taliban getting more control of more and more provinces; the poppy production going up.”

“We’ve got an opportunity in Iraq, but in Afghanistan, I just don’t know,” he said.

Murtha said his alarm about the deterioration in Afghanistan was based partly on a recent conversation with NATO Supreme Allied Commander Gen. John Craddock who has responsibility for NATO's mission in Afghanistan.

Murtha added, “We can not win any of these wars; they (the people in Iraq and Afghanistan) have to win them themselves.”

Like Taylor, Murtha has not endorsed any of the presidential contenders.

Asked whether Afghanistan is in more peril now than it was 18 months ago, McCain said yes, but added, “I don’t think it is due to our concentration on Iraq. It is due to a number of other failures including corruption in government, poppy crops,” and among other factors, the safe haven for al Qaida soldiers in the Pakistani region of Waziristan.

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