Barack Obama Talks with Troops in Afghanistan

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was in Afghanistan to talk with troops about a war he says is not getting enough attention.

Barack Obama made Afghanistan the first stop on an overseas trip aimed at proving his foreign policy credentials. He will also visit Iraq, Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and Britain.

"I want to, obviously, talk to the commanders and get a sense, both in Afghanistan and in Baghdad of ... what ... their biggest concerns are," he told reporters before boarding a military flight from the United States. "And I want to thank our troops for the heroic work that they've been doing."

Obama has a plan to send two more brigades, or about 7,000 U.S. troops, to Afghanistan to shift emphasis from what he calls the Bush administration's blurry focus on Iraq. The Illinois senator will call for a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq in 16 months.

There are four times more US troop involvement in Iraq than the 36,000 currently in Afghanistan. However, more US soldiers were killed in Afghanistan in both May and June than in Iraq.

John McCain, Obama's Republican presidential rival, also wants to send three more brigades to Afghanistan and pledged to find the extra troops by asking NATO to send more troops as they become available.

Afghanistan experts doubt sending more troops was the answer.