Obama Arrives in Afghanistan on bin Laden Death Anniversary

[westtowel]

U.S. President Barack Obama has arrived in Afghanistan on a secret trip to mark the first anniversary of the killing of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Mr. Obama is expected to sign a strategic partnership agreement setting conditions for a U.S. presence there after a 2014 deadline for the withdrawal of most NATO combat forces.

The president arrived at Bagram Air Base late Tuesday and immediately flew by helicopter to the Afghan capital, Kabul. He is meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai at his palace and will later give remarks to U.S. troops at Bagram.

From Bagram, he also plans to deliver a live, televised address to the American people about the Afghanistan war at 7:30 p.m. EDT (2330 GMT).

The president's speech will focus on the strategic partnership agreement and is likely to emphasize his plans to wind down the costly and unpopular Afghanistan war where nearly 3,000 U.S. and NATO soldiers have died since the country was invaded in 2001.

The address will come exactly one year after U.S. special forces, on his order, began the raid that led to the killing of bin Laden at his Pakistani safehouse.

Since then, ties between the United States and Afghanistan have frayed due to the burning of Muslim holy books at a U.S. base and the massacre of 17 civilians, including children, allegedly by an American soldier.

Mr. Obama is scheduled to be on the ground in Afghanistan for about seven hours.



http://www.voanews.com/english/news/Obama-Arrives-in-Afghanistan-to-Mark-bin-Laden-Death-Anniversary-149709365.html

 

[Sashan]

US President Barack Obama has signed a strategic agreement with Afghan leader Hamid Karzai on a previously unannounced visit to Afghanistan.

The 10-year accord outlines military and civil ties between the countries after the end of Nato's mission in Afghanistan in 2014.

Mr Obama is also due to give a TV address to Americans back home.

The visit coincides with the first anniversary of Osama Bin Laden's killing in Pakistan.

It was a year ago that US special forces carried out a raid on Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad and killed the leader of the al-Qaeda network.

After Mr Obama's arrival, Mr Karzai said a post-war agreement would seal an "equal partnership" between Afghanistan and the United States, reports say.

BBC News - US President Barack Obama signs strategic Afghan accord



Didn't want to open a separate thread as it is the extension of the above news.

 

[JayAtl]

Great anniversary for Americans. Go Seal Team 6 .

 

[Respect4Respect01]

did anyone throw a shoe yet?

 

[Coltsfan]

did anyone throw a shoe yet?

Nope, and good thing no one tried..... Obama would have probably caught the shoe, threw it back decapitating the thrower. He is no GW.

 

[Sergi]

Remembering OBL ???

 

[Solomon2]

Remember the war room:

Everyone else was just doing their job, as ordered. Obama had all the responsibility of making the decision for the first attempted deep-range helicopter assault since the Carter's attempted rescue of U.S. hostages in 1979. I'm not Obama's biggest fan but The Man earned this victory tour.

 

[JayAtl]

did anyone throw a shoe yet?

at your so called security and military apparatus for the bang job they do in " protecting" from foreign aircrafts coming in unabated ?

 

[explorer9]

so Mr. karzai is no more..... Mayor of Kabul

 

[Jango]

Remember the war room:

Everyone else was just doing their job, as ordered. Obama had all the responsibility of making the decision for the first attempted deep-range helicopter assault since the Carter's attempted rescue of U.S. hostages in 1979. I'm not Obama's biggest fan but The Man earned this victory tour.

Hillary Clinton was actually yawning in this picture I think. She said something along the same lines in an interview.

 

[Respect4Respect01]

Nope, and good thing no one tried..... Obama would have probably caught the shoe, threw it back decapitating the thrower. He is no GW.

naw bro no chance, bush was a bigger a-hole than obama and he couldnt catch the shoe, but he ducked it lol.

at your so called security and military apparatus for the bang job they do in " protecting" from foreign aircrafts coming in unabated ?

first of all u make no sense but ill just act like i understood u.
u remember when india said that they can come into Pakistan and do a operation like usa, remember what our general said? go figure, that will be your answer.

 

[BATMAN]

He shouldn't have chosen this date for his visit.

Message for Pakistan is that; US is willing to go all the way, for poking fun at Pakistan's face.

It feels, that US take his dictation from Indian trolls.

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

The agreement Obama signed (while being quickly whisked in and out stealthily from Afghanistan) designates “The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan” as a major non-NATO ally of the United States, the same status as is 'enjoyed' by Egypt, Kuwait, Pakistan and a handful of other countries.

The document speaks of commitment to democracy, but Karzai stole the last presidential election, and there were serious allegations of irregularities in the most recent parliamentary elections, as well.

The document pledges that the US will have no permanent bases in Afghanistan, but the issue won’t even come up again for discussion until a decade or a decade and a half. There are roughly 88,000 US troops in Afghanistan, but that will come down to some 69,000 by September, and then most of those will leave by the end of 2013 - or so we are told.

In the meantime, the US will have access to Afghanistan bases and will provide special forces for the continued fight against “Taliban” (most of the ones we call that aren’t), as well as continuing to train the Afghan army.

And more importantly to pay for it (roughly $4 billion a year). Afghanistan cannot afford the enormous army being created for it, so it will go on being supported by ‘strategic rent’ from outside powers or it will collapse. Realistically speaking, not optimistically speaking.

Obama’s four-fold strategy for Afghanistan is sickly if not dead. It consisted of:

1. Finding a way to replace the eratic and undependable Hamid Karzai with someone else (perhaps Abdullah Abdullah, former foreign minister of the Northern Alliance).

But Karzai stole the last presidential election and is still there, and Obama had to grin and bear it.

2. Conduct a massive counter-insurgency strategy, rooting out the Taliban and winning the hearts and minds of the Afghans for a new political order.

I don’t think there is any reason to believe that NATO's ‘counter-insurgency’ succeeded. The hearts and minds were un-won by night raids (sometimes with a mistaken target), peeing on corpses of dead Talibans, burning Qurans at Bagram base, trigger happy staff sargents massacting innocent Afghans (among them children who were so young they didn't even know they were Afghans) etc., etc.

3. Train up a capable new Afghanistan National Army.

I've been told that the Afghan ''national'' army is now 187,000 strong. Plan is to take it to 200,000 - keeping in mind that dessertion rate is 1 in 7 soldiers per annum. From last January to June alone 24,000 ran off from their jobs (More Afghan soldiers deserting the army, NATO statistics show - The Washington Post). Furthermore, there is no trust between NATO (US especially) soldiers and their Afghan counterparts in the wake of rogue soldiers engaging in blue on blue violence (even fratricide amongst themselves - as was witnessed 2 months back)

It suffers from being 86% illiterate, lazy, drug addiction issues lingering, tardiness, and from being disproportionately Tajik (with records of abuses against Pashtuns) and from having almost no buy-in from Qandahar and Helmand provinces (Taliban strongholds). It loses the equivalent of counties in the east to the Taliban and can’t seem to fight independently of US troops.

Only one (1) ANA military unit is assessed as able to fight independently, out of nearly 100).

It is bloated, decently-equipped, but under-trained and lacking in initiative and apparently 'esprit de corps' needed for good soldiery.

That this army can defeat the Taliban or even just keep Karzai from being hanged when the US and NATO depart is not at all a sure thing. (mild understatement!)

4. Use drone strikes to hit al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders in the tribal belt of Pakistan, while pressuring Pakistan finally to step up and help defeat the Taliban.

Well - pressure tactics have been used on Pakistan; they haven't worked. The US hasn't treated Pakistan as an ally on an equal footing. They accuse us of duplicity while they send Raymond Davis's and kill 24 soldiers @ Salala.

Unlike before where cheap shots were taken at our military (which responded in kind correctly by cutting off the supplies route) now the US Admin is picking a fight with the parliament of Pakistan (which i could care less about, but whether we like it or not, they are in charge). The US is holding the Parliamentary review in utter contempt. It wont bode well if they are trying to seek cooperation from Pakistan - which they themselves claim they need in order to ''win'' or ''secure'' Afghanistan



at the end of the day, our Americans friends need to brush up on their history and knowledge....you dont invade Afghanistan and then expect that there would be no resistance.....you dont blame Pakistan for duplicity when you yourselves have been duplicitous. Pakistan doesn't have it's hands clean completely, but neither does the US nor Afghanistan and its puppet leaders and war-lords calling the shots district to district, village to village.


With regards to Pakistan, we will do whatever it takes to secure our national interests.....this is our neighbourhood so therefore this is our concern. It isn't the concern of NATO countries that have no business interfering in the neighbourhood and trying to be the police force. That isn't how it works, and it isn't how it will work.

partnership and trust are a two-way thing. Not one-way thing. Better learn that sooner than later.

 

[Rod of God]

Nope, and good thing no one tried..... Obama would have probably caught the shoe, threw it back decapitating the thrower. He is no GW.

Don't sell G.B. short. He was a pretty good athlete in his day. I saw him throw out the first pitch at a baseball game once. Good arm !!

 

[fatman17]

..AP-GfK Poll: Support for Afghan war at new low


By ANNE GEARAN | Associated Press.


...FILE - In this May 2, 2012, file …

....WASHINGTON (AP) — Support for the war in Afghanistan has reached a new low, with only 27 percent of Americans saying they back the effort and about half of those who oppose the war saying the continued presence of American troops in Afghanistan is doing more harm than good, according to an AP-GfK poll.

In results released Wednesday, 66 percent opposed the war, with 40 percent saying they were "strongly" opposed. A year ago, 37 percent favored the war, and in the spring of 2010, support was at 46 percent. Eight percent strongly supported the war in the new poll.