President Obama Gets Back on the War Wagon
Fresh off his historic and defiant passage of health care reform and barnstorming across the country soliciting popular support to combat Republican and Tea Party opposition, President Obama got back on the war wagon.
After a surprise 13-hour flight, Mr. Obama made his first presidential visit to Afghanistan. While the war has not been off his radar, as evidenced by the continued drone strikes on al Qaeda and Taliban leaders and the usual military briefings, domestic issues have been center stage.
Mr. Obama arrives at a time when the pressure on American troops is increasing, and the additional 30,000 troops he authorized at the end of 2009 are deploying to the battleground. In the first three months of 2010, the number of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan has nearly doubled compared to the same period in 2009. The number of wounded has also spiked, more than tripling over the same three months in 2009. And the U.S. is girding for an increase in violence during the summer, as it has seen in the past.
During his brief stay, Mr. Obama thanked the troops and civilians during remarks at Bagram Air Field. "Your services are absolutely necessary, absolutely essential to America's safety and security," he said.
He then met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at his presidential palace in Kabul, delivering another iteration of administration's tough message to the Afghan leader: crack down on rampant corruption, make inroads against the drug trade that funds the insurgency and clean up cronyism in the government.
The U.S. has spent over $6 billion since 2002 training the Afghan police force, but according to a Newsweek/ProPublica investigation the effort has been a disaster.
The White House said that Karzai, whose relationship with the White House has grown more contentious since his controversial re-election, would be coming to Washington D.C. on May 12 to continue the dialog.
The fact that Mr. Obama didn't take a weekend breather at Camp David after a hard-fought battle for health care legislation, and traveled during a final stage of the NCAA basketball tournament that he obsesses over, shows an administration quick to leverage its new-found strength with a mostly symbolic trip to Afghanistan.
For now Mr. Obama and team have a little wind at their back, and they are working overtime to spread their sails.