Obama makes surprise visit to Afghanistan
Baku, December 3 (AZERTAC). President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Friday to personally deliver holiday greetings to U.S. troops stationed there, according to VOA.
The president, who is expected to remain on the ground there for roughly three hours, is slated to address troops at Bagram Airfield.
Most of the troops are with the Army`s 101st Airborne Division, though components of all the service branches will be represented.
He will also visit wounded troops at a hospital on the base, according to reporters traveling with Obama. The president will meet with a total of eight patients -- five soldiers and three civilian contractors.
He will award four Purple Hearts.
Obama was originally scheduled to travel to Kabul to meet with President Hamid Karzai and greet U.S. embassy staffers, but will stay at Bagram because of poor weather conditions. Obama will, however, speak to Karzai via secure videoconference.
National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, and Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, will also participate in the meeting.
Rhodes said the administration`s major focus in Afghanistan remains "breaking the Taliban`s momentum" while building up Kabul`s security capability and promoting a transfer of authority and responsibility to Afghan military forces.
A major U.S. military review of the war in Afghanistan is due this month, a year after Obama ordered additional U.S. troops to the country as part of a strategy that could bring some forces home as soon as July 2011.
Friday`s trip is Obama`s second visit to Afghanistan since he became commander in chief. Obama also traveled to Afghanistan in 2008 as a presidential candidate.
During that visit -- which was part of a broader trip to the Middle East -- Obama traveled to the eastern part of the country to meet with both Karzai and U.S. forces.
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