Turmoil puts Afghanistan at epicenter of White House campaign

0 Comments | AFP, July, 2008

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Fresh carnage in Kabul and a rising death toll among US troops are thrusting once-forgotten Afghanistan into the thick of the intensifying White House showdown between John McCain and Barack Obama.

Democratic presumptive nominee Obama is promising to redeploy large numbers of US combat troops from Iraq to Afghanistan if he is elected president in November, in an effort to quell resurgent militant activity.

Republican candidate John McCain however maintains that Iraq is the central front of the "war on terror" adding that a US withdrawal would embolden terrorists and US enemies, and that the two wars cannot be seen in isolation.

Afghanistan moved to center stage in the campaign last week, before Monday's suicide car bombing at the Indian...