Obama says despite security progress, Iraq needs a political solution

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
US presidential candidate Barack Obama says security in Iraq has improved but now the country's needs must be addressed politically and diplomatically. The Democratic senator was speaking in Amman, Jordan, during the first news conference of his highly publicized trip abroad. Obama summarized what he saw in Iraq this way: "There is security progress, but now we need a political solution." Obama and his two traveling Senate companions, Democrat Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, emphasized the need to turn US attention to Afghanistan. Obama says Afghanistan is now the central front in the war against terrorism.