obama makes surprise visit to afghanistan

5/25/2014 Obama makes surprise visit to Afghanistan - The Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-arrives-in-afghanistan-on-surprise-visit/2014/05/25/7df61452-e41f-11e3-8f90-73e071f3d637_print.html 1/4

Back to previous page

Obama makes surprisevisit to Afghanistan

By Scott Wilson, Updated: Sunday,May 25, 12:57 PM

BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan — President

Obama arrived in Afghanistan on Sunday for an

unannounced visit to mark Memorial Day with U.S.

troops, now in the final months 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 hangar with a tennis-court-size American flag as a backdrop, Obama told a raucous audienceof 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,” he said, “and the more than half a million Americans in the military who have

served here in Afghanistan.”

Obama departed Washington on Saturday night under cover of darkness and arrived at this U.S. base outsideKabul, the capital, under the same secrecy. It is his fourth trip to Afghanistan as president and his first in two

years.

The visit lasted less than four hours. 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 postwar 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 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 postwar one.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/scott-wilson/2011/03/02/ABt5vmP_page.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/obamas-revamp-of-anti-terror-policies-stalls/2014/05/21/79ac0f20-e053-11e3-8dcc-d6b7fede081a_story.html



“We are at a bit of a turning point in our foreign policy generally,” Ben Rhodes, 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 transition is also underway in Afghanistan, which is in the midst of the 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, but they spoke by phone for

about 20 minutes before Obama left Bagram. A senior administration official said Obama praised Karzai for

progress being made by Afghan security forces and for his country’s successful first-round election in April and

said he continued to support Afghan-led peace negotiations with the Taliban.

For the most part, Obama is biding his time until Karzai’s tenure, which has spanned the post-9/11 period, endsthis 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 scheduled for a runoff June

14. Administration officials said before the visit began that Obama would not inject himself into the runoff

campaign by meeting with either candidate or discussing the race.

“We are mindful that we are in the middle of an election season,” Rhodes said.

But he added that Obama’s visit was 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 immediatelyto sign a security agreement that will help determine how many U.S. forces, now numbering 32,000, will remain

in Afghanistan after the end of the year. The number could range as high as 10,000 troops to meet what Rhodessaid would be a twin training and counterterrorism mission.

Karzai confounded Obama last year by refusing to sign the agreement after months of negotiation, saying thatsuch a significant step should be left to his successor. Both Abdullah and Ghani have stated publicly that they

intend to sign 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 visitto Bagram but that the Afghan president declined. Raz said that Karzai had invited Obama to the presidential

palace instead. Afghan officials indicated that asking Karzai to meet at the U.S. military base, rather than his ownhome, 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’twork 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 — and make arrangements forthe 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,” he 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,” the president said.

Obama last visited in May 2012 — a year to the day after U.S. forces killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Ladenin neighboring Pakistan — to sign a strategic partnership agreement that began to mark out the parameters of

America’s postwar relationship with Afghanistan.

In the midst of his reelection campaign, Obama used the agreement and the bin Laden anniversary to signal in anationally televised address “a future in which war ends and a new chapter begins.” 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 whereonly 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 newevidence 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 heldaccountable.

The public centerpiece of his visit was his address to U.S. troops, who were entertained beforehand by country

music star Brad Paisley. Paisley, who traveled aboard Air Force One for the visit and who has performed at theWhite 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 than17,000 have been wounded, and he saw some of them Sunday during a private visit to the Bagram military

hospital. In remarks last week, Obama called such visits the “most searing moments of my presidency,” all ofthem 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 operationshere, while Afghan soldiers have died at much higher rates, though the Afghan government does not release those

figures.

Kevin Sieff in Kabul contributed to this report.



Sponsored Links

Credit Card Company BreachLifeLock Ultimate® protects your identity from the effects of data breach.www.LifeLock.com/protection

TransUnion® Official SiteGet your Credit Score and Report from the Trusted Source.transunion.com

Join TD Ameritrade.Trade free for 60 days + Get up to $600https://www.tdameritrade.com

Buy a link here

© The Washington Post Company

http://washingtonpost.sl.advertising.com/admin/advertisers/indexPl.jsp

obama makes surprise visit to afghanistan

Documents