Top US Democrats on Tuesday criticised President George W. Bush for not sending enough resources to Afghanistan to combat soaring violence and for pulling too few American troops out of Iraq.
Bush, an unpopular president fighting an unpopular war in Iraq, said a dramatic drop in violence in that war zone would allow the US military to shift its effort to Afghanistan, where he acknowledged that "huge challenges" remain.
He said some 8,000 combat and support personnel would return from Iraq by February 2009, while a fresh Marine battalion and Army combat brigade would go to Afghanistan to respond to escalating attacks there and along the border with Pakistan by Islamist militants.
But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat from Nevada, said Bush should be doing more to shift resources to Afghanistan. "Given the increasingly violent situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, I am stunned that President Bush has decided to bring so few troops home from Iraq and send so few resources to Afghanistan," Reid said.
The United States has 146,000 troops in Iraq and 33,000 in Afghanistan. Any large-scale shift in US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan will be left to Bush's successor - either Republican Senator John McCain or Democratic Senator Barack Obama. Bush will leave office in January after the November 4 election.
Democrats, including Obama, have criticised Bush for being too focused on Iraq instead of Afghanistan and its border with Pakistan, where intelligence officials believe al Qaeda leader and the mastermind of the September 11 attacks Osama bin Laden is hiding.
"More significant troop reductions in Iraq are needed so that we can start to rebuild US military readiness and provide the additional forces needed to finish the fight in Afghanistan," said Rep. Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and Missouri Democrat.