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| Obama makes surprise visit to Afghanistan | |
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| BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — President Obama arrived in Afghanistan Sunday for an unannounced visit to mark Memorial Day with U.S. troops, now in the final months here of America’s longest war, and to begin final discussions over the size of the U.S. force that will remain beyond the end of the year. | BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — President Obama arrived in Afghanistan Sunday for an unannounced visit to mark Memorial Day with U.S. troops, now in the final months here of America’s longest war, and to begin final discussions over the size of the U.S. force that will remain beyond the end of the year. |
| Inside a cavernous hanger here, with a tennis-court-size American flag as a backdrop, Obama told a raucous audience of about 3,000 U.S. troops that the American public “stands in awe of you,” grateful for their service and united in support of veterans as they return home. | |
| “For many of you this will be your last tour in Afghanistan,” Obama said to roars, adding that at the end of the year, “America’s war in Afghanistan will come to a responsible end.” | |
| “That progress is because of you,” Obama said, “and the more than half a million Americans in the military who have served here in Afghanistan.” | |
| Obama departed from Washington on Saturday night under cover of darkness and arrived at this U.S. base outside Kabul, the capital, under the same secrecy. It is his fourth trip to Afghanistan as president and his first in two years. | Obama departed from Washington on Saturday night under cover of darkness and arrived at this U.S. base outside Kabul, the capital, under the same secrecy. It is his fourth trip to Afghanistan as president and his first in two years. |
| The visit lasted only a few hours and ended before sunrise. But it came at a crossroads moment for Afghanistan’s political transition as the long tenure of President Hamid Karzai winds down, and for the Obama administration’s post-war strategy, which advisers say he will begin describing publicly in the coming weeks. | |
| Obama met first with Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., commander of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan, and Ambassador James Cunningham to receive a battlefield update and discuss the civilian and military resources needed here after this year to continue training Afghan forces and to assist in specific counterterrorism missions. | |
| Obama will begin outlining those plans Wednesday in a scheduled speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he intends to trace the broader shift underway, more than a decade after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, from an American wartime foreign policy to a post-war one. | Obama will begin outlining those plans Wednesday in a scheduled speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he intends to trace the broader shift underway, more than a decade after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, from an American wartime foreign policy to a post-war one. |
| “We are at a bit of a turning point in our foreign policy generally,” Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, told reporters traveling aboard Air Force One. “Our foreign policy is going to be a lot different than it has been over the past decade, and the president will speak to what that transition will mean.” | “We are at a bit of a turning point in our foreign policy generally,” Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, told reporters traveling aboard Air Force One. “Our foreign policy is going to be a lot different than it has been over the past decade, and the president will speak to what that transition will mean.” |
| A similar transition is underway in Afghanistan, now in the midst of its first democratic transfer of power in the country’s long history. | A similar transition is underway in Afghanistan, now in the midst of its first democratic transfer of power in the country’s long history. |
| Obama did not meet with Karzai, with whom he has had a stormy relationship. Now, for the most part, Obama is biding his time until a tenure that has spanned the post-9/11 period ends this summer. The country’s presidential election in April produced two finalists — former Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and onetime World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani — who are on a runoff ballot scheduled for June 14. Administration officials said before he visit began that Obama would not inject himself into the runoff campaign by meeting with either candidate or discussing the race in his remarks. | |
| “We are mindful that we are in the middle of an election season,” Rhodes said. But he added that Obama’s visit was also meant, in part, to assure the Afghan public that “no matter what happens, we have an enduring commitment to Afghanistan.” | |
| Obama and his military command are eager for the election to be resolved. The winner will be asked immediately to sign a security agreement that will help determine how many U.S. forces, now numbering 32,000 troops, will remain in Afghanistan after the end of the year. The number could range as high as 10,000 troops to meet what Rhodes said would be a twin training and counterterrorism mission. | Obama and his military command are eager for the election to be resolved. The winner will be asked immediately to sign a security agreement that will help determine how many U.S. forces, now numbering 32,000 troops, will remain in Afghanistan after the end of the year. The number could range as high as 10,000 troops to meet what Rhodes said would be a twin training and counterterrorism mission. |
| Karzai confounded Obama last year by refusing to sign the agreement after months of negotiation, saying that such a significant step should be left to his successor. Both Abdullah and Ghani have stated publicly that they intend to do so within days of taking office, probably in July. | Karzai confounded Obama last year by refusing to sign the agreement after months of negotiation, saying that such a significant step should be left to his successor. Both Abdullah and Ghani have stated publicly that they intend to do so within days of taking office, probably in July. |
| A Karzai spokeswoman, Adela Raz, said that the U.S. Embassy tried to arrange a meeting during Obama’s visit to Bagram but that the Afghan president declined the offer, adding that Karzai had invited Obama to the presidential palace instead. | |
| Afghan officials indicated that asking Karzai to meet at the American military base, rather than his own home, was a sign of disrespect. | |
| A bilateral meeting was not planned, the White House said in a statement, because the trip was “focused on thanking our troops.” | |
| “We did offer him the opportunity to come to Bagram,” the statement said,“but we’re not surprised that it didn’t work on short notice. | |
| U.S. officials say the security agreement must be endorsed as soon as possible to give U.S. military planners time to complete drawdown schedules — including decisions on what bases to close here — and make arrangements for the next phase of the U.S. military presence after nearly 13 years of war. | |
| Obama said the signing would allow planning to begin for a “limited” military presence beyond the end of the year. | |
| “Everybody knows Afghanistan is still a very dangerous place,” Obama said. “But just look at the progress you have made possible — Afghans reclaiming their communities, girls going to schools, increases in life expectancy.” | |
| “More Afghans have hope in their future, and so much of that is because of you,” he said. | |
| Obama last visited in May 2012, a year to the day after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in neighboring Pakistan, to sign a strategic partnership agreement that began to mark out the parameters of America’s post-war relationship with Afghanistan. | Obama last visited in May 2012, a year to the day after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in neighboring Pakistan, to sign a strategic partnership agreement that began to mark out the parameters of America’s post-war relationship with Afghanistan. |
| In the midst of his reelection campaign, Obama used the agreement and the bin Laden anniversary to signal in a nationally televised address “a future in which war ends and a new chapter begins” as the American electorate grew increasingly tired of war. Now he has turned much of his attention to bringing those troops who remain here home by the year’s end and preparing a country, where only a tiny fraction of the population fought in America’s post-9/11 conflicts, to receive them. | In the midst of his reelection campaign, Obama used the agreement and the bin Laden anniversary to signal in a nationally televised address “a future in which war ends and a new chapter begins” as the American electorate grew increasingly tired of war. Now he has turned much of his attention to bringing those troops who remain here home by the year’s end and preparing a country, where only a tiny fraction of the population fought in America’s post-9/11 conflicts, to receive them. |
| His visit here came against the backdrop of rising anger at home among veterans advocacy groups over his management of the Department of Veterans Affairs, where a backlog in benefit payments persists and new evidence has arisen that some VA medical centers have covered up the extended wait times that many veterans are experiencing. Obama said last week that those found responsible for the problems would be held accountable. | |
| The public centerpiece of his visit was his address to U.S. troops, who were entertained beforehand by country music star Brad Paisley, who traveled aboard Air Force One for the visit. Paisley, who has performed at the White House for veterans and their families in the past, called the event the “honor of his life.” | |
| Since Obama took office, nearly 2,000 U.S. service members have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 17,000 others have been wounded, among them those whom he will see here in a private visit to the base military hospital. In his remarks last week, he called such visits the “most searing moments of my presidency,” all of them taking place outside public view. | Since Obama took office, nearly 2,000 U.S. service members have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. More than 17,000 others have been wounded, among them those whom he will see here in a private visit to the base military hospital. In his remarks last week, he called such visits the “most searing moments of my presidency,” all of them taking place outside public view. |
| But the U.S. involvement here is receding, a pullback reflected in declining casualty figures as Afghan forces take the lead role in combat operations. This year, 12 U.S. service members have been killed in combat operations here, with Afghan soldiers dying at much higher rates. The Afghan government does not release those figures. | |
| “Our obligations to you and your families have only just begun,” Obama said. | |
| Kevin Sieff in Kabul contributed to this report. |