Gen. Petraeus agrees with Obama - not McCain

Remember McCain demonizing Obama for wanting to talk with our enemies in the debate?

General Petreaus said at the Heritage Foundation yesterday:

"I do think you have to talk to enemies. ... I mean what we did do in Iraq ultimately was sit down with some of those that were shooting at us. What we tried to do was identify those who might be reconcilable."

Petraeus - McCain’s hero, agrees with Obama - not McCain.

McCain thinks the Iraq surge should be a model for the strategy in Afghanistan, according to McCain, “the same strategy that he [Obama] condemned in Iraq.” Wrong - according to both commanders - Petraeus and McKiernan.

Washington Independent: Petraeus Talk Bolsters Obama

Petraeus pointed to efforts by Hamid Karzai’s government to negotiate a deal with the Taliban that would potentially bring some Taliban members back to power, saying that if they are “willing to reconcile,” it would be “a positive step.”In saying that, Petraeus implicitly allied with U.S. Army Gen. David McKiernan, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan. Last week, McKiernan rejected the idea of replicating the blend of counterinsurgency strategy employed in Iraq. “The word that I don’t use in Afghanistan is the word ’surge,’” McKiernan said, opting against recruiting Pashtun tribal fighters to supplement Afghan security forces against Al Qaeda and the Taliban. “There are countless other differences between Iraq and Afghanistan,” he added.

McCain, however, has argued that the Afghanistan war is ripe for a direct replication of Petraeus’ Iraq strategy of population-centric counterinsurgency. “Sen. Obama calls for more troops,” McCain said in the Sept. 26 debate, “but what he doesn’t understand, it’s got to be a new strategy, the same strategy that he condemned in Iraq. It’s going to have to be employed in Afghanistan.”