Obama on surprise trip to sign Afghan deal

US President Barack Obama. AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster

KABUL — US President Barack Obama landed in Afghanistan under a veil of secrecy and high security to sign a post-2014 partnership deal designed to secure a “future of peace” after the misery of a decade of war.

A year to the day after the killing of Osama bin Laden, the architect of the September 11 attacks that drew America into the Afghan quagmire, Obama descended under the cover of darkness for a swift and symbolic visit.

He signed a post-war partnership deal with President Hamid Karzai, told US troops their sacrifice had made a “light on the horizon” ahead, and was to make a major televised address to the American people on the progress of the war.

“Neither Americans nor the Afghan people asked for this war, yet for a decade we’ve stood together,” Obama said early Wednesday, signing a 10-page pact pledging US aid to Afghanistan after 2014 when NATO combat troops leave.

“I’m here to affirm the bond between our two countries and to thank Americans and Afghans who have sacrificed so much over these last ten years,” he said at Karzai’s presidential palace.

“We look forward to a future of peace. Today we’re agreeing to be long-term partners.”

The pact forsees the possibility of American forces staying behind to train Afghan forces and pursue the remnants of Al-Qaeda but does not commit Washington to specific troop or funding levels for Afghanistan.

The deal, reached after months of painstaking negotiations, also states that the United States does not seek permanent military bases in Afghanistan and was concluded just over two weeks before a NATO summit in Chicago.

Later, Obama, the commander-in-chief of American troops, addressed soldiers at Bagram air force base.

“It’s still tough, the battle is not yet over. Some of your buddies are going to get injured, some of your buddies may get killed,” Obama said.

“There is going to be heartbreak and pain and difficulty ahead, but there is a light on the horizon because of the sacrifices you have made.”

Obama, making his third trip to Afghanistan since taking office in 2009, landed at 10:20 pm late Tuesday and was met by US ambassador Ryan Crocker and Lieutenant General Mike Scaparotti, deputy commander of US forces in Afghanistan.

The trip underlined the symbolic power of the presidency at a time when Obama is locked in a fierce row with his Republican election foe Mitt Romney over claims he is hyping the bin Laden death anniversary for political gain.

On Tuesday, Obama had publicly questioned whether Romney would have taken the same decision as he did to launch an elite Navy SEALs raid deep into Pakistan to kill bin Laden in his lair in Abbottabad.

Romney’s campaign accused Obama of wrongly exploiting a moment of great national unity for political gain.

Obama’s vanquished 2008 election foe Senator John McCain welcomed Obama’s decision to travel to Afghanistan, days after lashing him for exploiting the bin Laden raid.

“I hope the president’s speech tonight will emphasize the degree of our commitment in Afghanistan, rather than the plans for withdrawal,” McCain said.

“I would urge the president to return from this visit and spend more time speaking directly with the American people about the vital national security interests at stake in Afghanistan and the need for the United States to remain strongly engaged there in the years ahead.”

Obama, who has already carried out his pledge to end the war in Iraq, will campaign for November’s election on a platform to bring all troops home from the Afghan war.

His last trip to Afghanistan in December 2010 lasted only a few hours when he flew into Bagram air base, outside Kabul, to meet US troops but did not meet with Karzai.

Ties between Kabul and Washington have strained since last May amid a series of massacres and incidents by US troops against Afghan civilians as a 130,000-strong US-led NATO force fights a fierce Taliban insurgency.

NATO forces have also suffered a string of deaths as the Afghan troops they were sent to the warzone to train turned their guns on them.

The last of the remaining 87,000 American combat troops in the country are due to pull out by the end of 2014, some 13 years after the September 11 attacks provoked a US-led campaign oust the Taliban for harboring bin Laden.

News of bin Laden’s death broke in Washington late on May 1, 2011, and in Pakistan on May 2, owing to the time difference.