Obama begins Afghan visit

Sen. Barack Obama landed in Kabul yesterday on an extraordinary wartime fact-finding mission with a strong political dimension.

The Democratic candidate for president has an opportunity to raise — or diminish — his standing as a potential commander in chief and to argue the case that Afghanistan, not Iraq, should be the focus of the nation’s struggle against terrorism.

He is accompanied by two Army veterans who have traveled extensively to the war zones, Senators Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.

Obama, dressed in light khaki colored trousers and a checkered shirt with his sleeves rolled up, received a briefing inside the U.S. base in Jalalabad from the Afghan provincial governor of Nangarhar, Gul Agha Sherzai, a no-nonsense, bullish former warlord.

“Obama promised us that if he becomes a president in the future, he will support and help Afghanistan not only in its security sector but also in reconstruction, development and economic sector,” Sherzai told the Associated Press.

The area where the meeting took place is not far from where Osama bin Laden escaped U.S. troops in 2001 after his al-Qaida terrorist group led the attacks on Sept. 11. With the ousted Taliban regime now resurgent and the al-Qaida goal of terrorizing the United States, Obama has argued that the war in Afghanistan deserves more attention as well as more troops.

Obama is expected to meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai today.

This is Obama’s first overseas tour since securing the Democratic nomination — he is scheduled to travel to Iraq, Israel and Europe this week.

Obama’s trip to Afghanistan began in secrecy Thursday after days of sharp, long-distance exchanges with Republican candidate John McCain over their contrasting views of the wars.

Illinois Democrat Obama has argued in speeches and writings that McCain was wrong in his decision to support the 2003 attack on Saddam Hussein and that the war in Iraq has distracted the nation from what he called the “war we have to win” — the fight against al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan and in neighboring Pakistan.

Shortly before departing Thursday, Obama told reporters, “I’m looking forward to seeing what the situation on the ground is. I want to, obviously, talk to the commanders and get a sense, both in Afghanistan and in Baghdad, of what their biggest concerns are. I’m more interested in listening than doing a lot of talking.”

Arizona Republican McCain has said in recent days that he pushed — over Obama’s strenuous objections — for last year’s troop surge in Iraq as a shift in President Bush’s failing war effort that has turned the tide against al-Qaida and the insurgency in Iraq. The successful counterterrorist elements of the surge are “precisely” the blueprint to follow for responding to rising violence in Afghanistan, McCain said.

In his weekly radio address yesterday, McCain said that Obama “announced his strategy for Afghanistan and Iraq before departing on a fact-finding mission that will include visits to both those countries. Apparently, he’s confident enough that he won’t find any facts that might change his opinion or alter his strategy. Remarkable.”

On the way to Afghanistan, Obama, Reed and Hagel stopped in Kuwait on Friday for briefings with U.S. personnel.

At Bagram air base in Afghanistan yesterday, they met with U.S. Ambassador William B. Wood and Maj. Gen. Jeffrey J. Schloesser, a U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, among other officials. .

Schloesser has reported in recent weeks that violent attacks against U.S., NATO and Afghanistan government forces have risen steeply.

As a reminder of the challenges in Afghanistan, authorities reported yesterday that a roadside bomb killed four policemen in the volatile south, where the Taliban insurgency is centered. A NATO soldier also was reported killed.

Recently, American casualties in Afghanistan in some weeks have exceeded those in Iraq.

Troop strength in Afghanistan and Iraq is at the core of the policy clash between the two presidential candidates. Obama has repeatedly pledged that if he is elected president he will remove American troops from Iraq at the rate of at least a brigade per month starting in January — a pace that would allow most U.S. troops to be out of Iraq by summer 2010.

In an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel released yesterday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called Obama’s suggestion of 16 months “the right time frame for a withdrawal” and said U.S. troops should leave Iraq “as soon as possible.” His statement was a sharp contrast to Bush administration policy, supported by McCain, opposing a set timetable for withdrawal.

Meanwhile, Obama has called for the deployment of two more U.S. combat brigades to Afghanistan. The need to focus on Afghanistan has been a central thrust of the candidate’s foreign-policy statements.

In a speech last week, McCain echoed Obama’s call for more forces in Afghanistan, specifying that he would seek three more U.S. combat brigades in that country.

McCain said, “But sending more forces, by itself, is not enough to prevail. What we need in Afghanistan is exactly what General David Petraeus brought to Iraq: a nationwide civil-military campaign plan that is focused on providing security for the population. Today no such integrated plan exists. When I am commander in chief, it will.”

Few citizens in impoverished Afghanistan were aware of Obama’s visit, and few have been following the U.S. presidential race, being too busy eking out an existence amid soaring violence and with limited access to news media.

But some interviewed yesterday said they would welcome an Obama presidency if he could help their country end the fighting, corruption and poverty that have crippled it for so long.

With reports from Associated Press

jmulligan@belo-dc.com