KABUL, Afghanistan ? President Obama landed here Tuesday, on a surprise visit, to sign a strategic partnership agreement with Afghanistan meant to mark the beginning of the end of a war that has lasted for more than a decade.
Mr. Obama, arriving after nightfall under a veil of secrecy at Bagram Air Base north of Kabul, flew by helicopter to the presidential palace, where he was to meet President Hamid Karzai before both leaders signed the pact. It is intended to be a road map for two nations lashed together by more than a decade of war and groping for a new relationship after the departure of American troops, scheduled for the end of 2014.
Mr. Obama was scheduled to address the American people from Afghanistan on Tuesday evening, which would be the middle of the night in Afghanistan. The address ? on the first anniversary of the American raid that killed Osama bin Laden in neighboring Pakistan ? will give Mr. Obama a new opportunity to make an election-year case that he has wound down two expensive and now unpopular wars, here and in Iraq.
The agreement with Kabul, completed after months of fraught negotiations, pledges American aid for Afghanistan for 10 years after the withdrawal of the last American soldiers. More symbolic than substantive, it nevertheless marks a transition for the United States, from the largest foreign military force in Afghanistan to a staunch, if faraway and complicated, ally.
The agreement and Mr. Obama?s decision to travel to Kabul to sign it are also meant to reassure Afghans that the United States will not abandon them once the soldiers leave, White House aides said. The Karzai government faces a continuing insurgency from the Taliban and meddling of neighbors like Pakistan and Iran, as well as problems of the government?s own making, like corruption.
The relationship between Afghanistan and the United States has been particularly turbulent in recent months. A United States Army staff sergeant is accused of killing 17 Afghan civilians in March, and a group of American troops mistakenly burned Korans in February. In April, Taliban suicide bombers conducted synchronized attacks around the country, raising new questions about the what Afghanistan will look like after American troops leave.
After he and Mr. Karzai sign the agreement and make brief statements, the president is to fly back to Bagram, where he will greet troops before delivering a 10-minute address to the nation on Afghanistan, his first in more than a year. As on two previous visits, he will spend only a few hours on the ground.
Still, the visit is laden with political significance, coming as it does in the thick of an election season at home, just four days before two big campaign rallies that serve as the symbolic kickoff of Mr. Obama?s reelection bid.
Mr. Obama?s campaign has recently emphasized his decision to order the raid that killed bin Laden, who masterminded the 9/`11 terrorist attacks from an Afghan sanctuary and drew the United States into war. With Bin Laden dead, along with much of his Al Qaeda high command, Mr. Obama has moved with increasing dispatch to wind down American military involvement here.
With polls showing a large majority of Americans weary with the war, the president?s aides have debated whether to accelerate current plans, which call for withdrawing 22,000 troops ? the balance of the ?troop surge? ? by September. It remains unclear whether the United States plans to do make changes.
Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has criticized the president for publicly announcing a date for withdrawal, saying that would allow the Taliban to simply wait out the United States. Mr. Romney has said he would make a decision on when to pull out troops based on the judgment of his generals, though at other times, he has endorsed bringing them home as soon as possible.
Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=556780b8f03c6712f0b1f65c234a0607
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