Obama pays surprise visit to U.S. troops in Afghanistan

PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S. President Barack Obama, on a surprise holiday visit to this sprawling military base, said Sunday, May 25, he was close to a decision about the number of U.S. troops who will remain after year's end in America's longest war, the Associated Press reported.

"We are aware of the sacrifices so many have made," Obama said after a briefing by Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, the top American commander in Afghanistan. "We'll probably be announcing some decisions fairly shortly."

The decision may come Wednesday when Obama delivers the commencement address at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York.

Air Force One landed at Bagram Air Field, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, after an overnight flight from Washington. Obama was scheduled to spend just a few hours on the base and had no plans to travel to Kabul, the capital, to meet with Hamid Karzai, the mercurial president who has had a tumultuous relationship with the White House.

Obama's surprise trip came as the U.S. and NATO withdraw most of their forces ahead of a year-end deadline.

Obama is seeking to keep a small number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond 2014 to train Afghan security forces and conduct counterterrorism missions. But that plan is contingent on Karzai's successor signing a bilateral security agreement that Karzai has refused to authorize.

At least 2,181 members of the U.S. military have died during the nearly 13-year Afghan war and thousands more have been wounded. There are still about 32,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, down from a high of 100,000 in mid-2010, when as Obama sent in additional soldiers to quell escalating violence.

In addition to the briefing by U.S. commanders in Afghanistan, Obama planned to speak to troops at Bagram and visit the injured being treated at a base hospital.