US Presumptive Republican Presidential candidate John McCain said  that he was not questioning his Democratic rival Barack Obama's patriotism when he criticized the Democrat's policies over the war in Iraq.  Obama has called for a withdrawal from Iraq over 16 months.

John McCain, Presumptive Republican Presidential candidate said:
"Senator Obama doesn't understand. He doesn't understand what's at stake here and he chose to take a political path that would have helped him get the nomination of his party. I took a path that I knew was unpopular because I knew that we had to win in Iraq and we are winning in Iraq and if we'd done what Senator Obama wanted done it would have been chaos, genocide, increased Iranian influence, perhaps al-Qaida establishing a base again.

The comments are the latest in a string of McCain's criticism of Obama on foreign policy.

Meanwhile, in his first public appearance since returning to the United States, Obama said conditions in Iraq are improving.

Barack Obama said:
"Any time you put 20 to 30-thousand troops anywhere in the world they are going to perform brilliantly and that is going to contribute to keeping the lid on violence. The question is whether or not that military action alone is sufficient to solve the problems

But Obama says that in Afghanistan, more American troops are needed to stabilize the area and that Pakistan must do more to deny terrorists a safe haven.

AP