There is also a level of plausibility in that the Neo-Liberal Bush Administration didn't see the need to try and "nation build" in Afghanistan.
But make no mistake about it, Obama is the one responsible for widening the war in Af-PAK.
In terms of McCain, I doubt we'd have already done anything with Iran. There's still too many pieces of the puzzle that have to go into place for that to happen.
To "win" the war in Afghanistan, nation building needs to occur. Bombing a stone-age country into a pebble-age country and installing a puppet government just means that you can prevent terrorist from branching out to attack outside the country for as long as you're there. We leave today, the Taliban would have control over Afghanistan within weeks and begin plotting all over again.
Instead, we need to be providing real infrastructure, which includes a real education system. There's a reason successful occupations generally last 10-14 years, or about the amount of time it takes to educate a generation and give them options to improve their lives.
I don't think there's any argument that Obama is widening the war in Af-Pak. The place needs a little cleaning up after the previous administration got bored and decided to do the nation building in Iraq.
If McCain's recent statements and writings are to be believed, we'd already be at war with Iran. Of course, he's long since lost any integrity he may have once had so that's a tossup.
You don't need to build an entire nation in Afghanistan. The Bush administration approach was far more feasible, and Afghanistan was relatively calm compared to what it is today. Again, ask yourself, why can't a Trillion dollar plus war, and intelligence machine keep a bunch of cave dwellers bottled up in the hills?? Simple answer, they can . . . but War Inc. doesn't want to keep them "just" bottled up . . . War Inc. wants a troop surge, and drone strikes, and 1000's more contractors. Plus, there's a trillion dollars in natural resources to conquer and pipelines to build and U.S. intelligence wants control of the drugs.
Just reconcile yourself to the reality that the current regime in Washington makes PNAC look like a bunch of flower children. If all goes as planned we'll Balkanize AF-Pak and expand our sphere of influence and thwart Chinese influence.
But hey, if you want to live the puppy dog fantasy of nation building, super highways, power plants and democracy as the ultimate endgame, where a benevolent United States packs up and goes home when the "last" terra-ist is dead . . . don't let me stop you.