WASHINGTON — On the campaign trail, the two presidential teams have been savaging each other over what they contend are stark differences between how Barack Obama and John McCain would lead the United States in its multibillion-dollar war on terrorism.
Democrat Obama declared in his convention speech: “McCain likes to say that he’ll follow bin Laden to the gates of Hell — but he won’t even go to the cave where he lives.”
At the GOP convention, Sarah Palin, McCain’s running mate, fired back: “Al-Qaida terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America; he’s worried that someone won’t read them their rights?”
But beneath the harsh rhetoric, the two candidates — who plan to meet this afternoon in New York City to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks — seem to be moving toward consensus on their broad-brush strategies, an unexpected development on what was the most contentious issue in the presidential race four years ago.
“The process of political campaigning has exaggerated the differences of the two candidates on trivial issues,” says Brian Michael Jenkins, of the Rand Corp., who is one of the world’s leading authorities on terrorism. He has studied the issue in the past seven presidential races. “But when it comes to where the campaigns have outlined their platforms on Iraq, Afghanistan and national security, there isn’t a great deal of difference.”
Both McCain and Obama have vowed to retool much of the Bush administration’s war on terrorism, if they take over as president and commander in chief, saying President Bush’s approach has been too heavy-handed, militaristic and unpopular both at home and abroad.
On Iraq, one of their most fundamental initial disagreements, the two candidates’ proposals have converged. Both now say they would withdraw troops within the next several years. Obama would draw down the troops by mid-2010 and McCain by 2013, but each with significant caveats that could prolong the U.S. military deployment.
Both say more soldiers are needed to quell a rapidly intensifying insurgency in Afghanistan and support a larger military force overall. They say a fresh approach is needed to capture Osama bin Laden and deal with the growing terrorist activity in Pakistan.
And they pledge to stop the torture of terrorism suspects.
