WASHINGTON — Echoing the concerns of U.S. commanders, presidential rivals Barack Obama and John McCain both called yesterday for action to improve the military situation in Afghanistan — but also charged each other with misunderstanding how Iraq fits into the overall struggle against terrorism.

“George Bush and John McCain don’t have a strategy for success in Iraq — they have a strategy for staying in Iraq,” Obama, the Democratic senator from Illinois, said in a speech in Washington. “They said we couldn’t leave when violence was up, they say we can’t leave when violence is down.”

“Senator Obama will tell you we can’t win in Afghanistan without losing in Iraq,” McCain, the Republican senator from Arizona, said later in a speech in Albuquerque, N.M. “In fact, he has it exactly backwards. It is precisely the success of the surge in Iraq that shows us the way to succeed in Afghanistan.”

The war policy clash also came as Obama prepares for a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, accompanied by Senators Jack Reed and Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican. Obama, who is in his first term in the Senate, made one brief trip to Iraq before his presidential run and has never been to Afghanistan.

His speech yesterday before an audience of about 500 at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington marked the second time in as many days that Obama repeated his pledge to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq within 16 months, if he is elected.

Obama also renewed his call for the deployment of two new combat brigades to Afghanistan, declaring that “this is a war that we have to win” in Afghanistan. Iraq, he said, has never been central to the struggle against terrorism. The war there “distracts us from every threat that we face and so many opportunities we could seize,” he said.

At the same time, Obama noted again that the level of violence in Iraq has fallen since Mr. Bush undertook his “surge” of additional troops to Iraq last year. “We have talked directly to Sunni tribes that used to be hostile to America, and supported their fight against al-Qaida. Shiite militias have generally respected a cease-fire. Those are the facts, and all Americans welcome them,” Obama said.

But he charged again that Iraq’s leaders have failed to attain the political reconciliation that the surge was meant to facilitate. He also said that U.S. commanders have made strides in training Iraqi armed forces to be more self-sufficient, making it possible for American forces to begin withdrawing.

“True success in Iraq — victory in Iraq — will not take place in a surrender ceremony where an enemy lays down their arms,” he said. “True success will take place when we leave Iraq to a government that is taking responsibility for its future — a government that prevents sectarian conflict, and ensures that the al-Qaida threat which has been beaten back by our troops does not reemerge.”

Obama said the current policy has led to the deterioration of the situation in Iraq, including the resurgence of the Taliban. If he were president, he said, he would attack Osama bin Laden in Pakistan if necessary.

Obama framed his war plans as part of a broader geopolitical strategy that would, he said, strengthen U.S. alliances, break the nation’s dependence on foreign oil and secure nuclear weapons around the world.

McCain, a four-term senator who has made eight wartime trips to Iraq, chided Obama for drawing his conclusions and fixing his policy on the wars first and undertaking his fact-finding mission later. “In wartime, judgment and experience matter,” said the former Navy officer who was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. “In a time of war, the commander-in-chief doesn’t get a learning curve.”

“It is by applying the tried and true principles of counterinsurgency used in the surge — which Senator Obama opposed — that we will win in Afghanistan. With the right strategy and the right forces, we can succeed in both Iraq and Afghanistan,” McCain said. “I know how to win wars. And if I’m elected president, I will turn around the war in Afghanistan, just as we have turned around the war in Iraq, with a comprehensive strategy for victory.”

McCain raised the troop ante on Obama, calling for three new combat brigades in Afghanistan, but he also criticized the NATO allies for what he depicted as their failure to do their part on that war front. He spoke in some detail about his view of the flawed NATO command structure. “This is no way to run a war,” McCain said.

McCain said the military command in Afghanistan should emulate the strategy that has worked in Iraq alongside the troop surge — “a nationwide civil-military campaign plan that is focused on providing security for the population.”

McCain also called for a major increase in aid — from the allies as well as the United States — to build up Afghanistan’s armed forces and undertake public works to build economic alternatives to the agriculture of drugs.

McCain criticized Obama’s threat to attack terrorists over the border in Pakistan. “In trying to sound tough, he has made it harder for the people whose support we most need [the Pakistanis] to provide it,” McCain said. “I will not bluster, and I will not make idle threats. But understand this: when I am commander-in-chief, there will be nowhere the terrorists can run, and nowhere they can hide.”CAMAPAIGN UPDATE

•Democrat Barack Obama holds his biggest advantage of the campaign as the candidate best prepared to fix the nation’s ailing economy, but lingering concerns about his readiness to handle international crises are keeping the race close, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Overall Obama holds an 8-point advantage among registered voters across the nation, lifted by a big advantage among women voters, and he has also regained an edge among political independents. But it is Obama’s lead on the economy that has become a particularly steep challenge for McCain.

Economic concerns continue to eclipse other issues, with half the country saying the country’s economy is “extremely important” to their vote in the presidential contest. Gasoline and energy prices, which voters rarely mentioned at the start of the year, come in just behind. The Iraq war, which was again the subject of direct engagement between Obama and McCain yesterday, ranks third. (The Washington Post)

•Americans are sharply divided by race heading into the first election in which an African-American will be a major-party presidential nominee, with blacks and whites holding vastly different views of Sen. Barack Obama, the state of race relations and how black Americans are treated by society, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

The results of the poll suggested that Obama’s groundbreaking candidacy, while generating high levels of enthusiasm among black voters, is not seen by them as evidence of significant improvement in race relations.

Over 80 percent of black voters said they had a favorable opinion of Obama; about 30 percent of white voters said they had a favorable opinion of him.

Nearly 60 percent of black respondents said that race relations are generally bad, compared with 34 percent of whites. Four in 10 blacks say that there has been no progress in recent years in eliminating racial discrimination; fewer than 2 in 10 whites say the same thing. And about one-quarter of white respondents said they thought that too much had been made of racial barriers facing black people, while one-half of black respondents said not enough had been made of such racial impediments. (The New York Times)

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