President Obama and Afghanistan

The president's revised war plan, unveiled in December called for a massive build up of troops in Afghanistan, since as Mr. Obama said, as reported by Sheldon Alberts, "the 30,000 additional troops that I am announcing tonight will deploy in the first part of 2010-the fastest pace possible- so that they can target the insurgency and secure key population centers." Obama's plan is to launch an aggressive and swift campaign against Taliban and Al-Qaeda strongholds to eradicate them from the region. The president has put a timeline on this troop buildup, hoping to start pulling US forces out of Afghanistan in mid 2011. By then it is hoped that the Afghani government will have enough power and control to rule their own country. As the president said, "The absence of a timeframe for transition would deny us any sense of urgency in working with the Afghani government."

After this announcement a few months ago, the President shifted his focus to passing the new Healthcare plan. With this bill passed last week, Obama has returned his focus to the war effort, making a secret and surprise visit to Afghanistan on Sunday. The White House told the press that Mr. Obama would be spending the weekend at Camp David, however, AirForce One was really on its way to Afghanistan. Once landed the president was flown by helicopter to the presidential palace of Afghani president Hamid Karzai in Kabul. For the past three months the troop surge in Afghanistan has proved very successful since forces have launched an offensive into the southern part of Afghanistan, the birthplace of the Taliban and the center of the Opium trade form which the Taliban gets most of its funding. Although the President met with troops to congratulate and thank them for their efforts and success so far in Afghanistan, the surprise visit to Afghanistan was to give president Hamid Karzai a little pep-talk.

Our offensives into the Southern region of Afghanistan have shown the military's ability to clear out Taliban and insurgent forces, but now it is the job of the Afghani government to establish the rule of law in these newly won back provinces. To do this Obama urged Karzai to end the corruption on the Afghani government end. The President was overall satisfied with the trip, saying "Progress will continue to be made."

President Karzai was not the only one that had a welcome arranged for President Obama that Sunday; hours after the president's surprise visit the Taliban claimed that they had sent a barrage of missiles to Bagram Airfield, as reported by James Gordon Meek. A military spokeswoman released that there had indeed been an indirect fire attack at Bagram, but unlike the Taliban's claim that "there had been significant losses to the enemy," there were no casualties.