Unannounced Trip to Afghanistan - WHY?

(CNN) -- President Obama made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan on Sunday.

The president left his Camp David, Maryland, retreat for the trip and flew to Afghanistan on Air Force One, landing at Bagram Air Base at 7:24 p.m. (around 11 a.m. ET).

Obama then flew on a helicopter to the Presidential Palace for a meeting with Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai.

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What may be his reasons for going, and why a surprise trip?

Afghanistan, which is an Islamic Republic is located in South-Central Asia, and is borderd by Pakistan in the south and east, Iran in the west, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in the north, and China in the far northeast. It is definitely a place I would not want to be. But to his dislike, President Obama found himself sending more and more troops to the area, and now is the time for him to come and visit the troops. President Obama decided it was important in this moment of time to meet with the Afghanistan president, Hamid Karzai. Going back to December 2009, president Obama supported the deployment of 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan which is a strategy to reverse the Taliban's momentum and stabilize the country's government. In the past, there were imminent threats of overthrowing the government by the Taliban, but recently, "al Qaeda has not re-emerged in Afghanistan in the same numbers as before 9/11, but they retain their safe-havens along the border.
With this said, President Obama plans to start removing troops from Afghanistan by July 2011, and most troops should be back home by the end of President Obama's current term, which ends in January 2013.
By arriving in Afghanistan, President Obama whats to restate his intentions with the U.S. presence in the country.

His 3 main objectives are:

1) Deny al Qaeda a safe haven

2) Reverse the Taliban's momentum and deny it the ability to overthrow Afghanistan's government

3) Strengthen Afghanistan's security forces and government

Sending additional troops is a way to achieve these goals. But Afghanistan has a part in it too. The Afghan government leaders must be held accountable for actions concerning corruption, and do what is necessary to try and save lives, along with help securing its own borders with Pakistan. Since Pakistan is very critical in the war against al Qaeda, mainly because the borders are severely infected with these terrorists, and President Obama no doubt is talking with the Afghan President to work a strategy that works on both sides of the border. Nevertheless, each mission has a deadline, and President Obama only sent the troops because he has a plan, to enter, to execute, and to leave in a timely fashion, as to not put our troops in harms way any longer than needed.

President Obama is in Afghanistan today because he wants to refresh his thinking with President Hamid Karzai.

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Reflections of the Country with President Barack Obama in 2009

Less than a week to go, and you can only help but reflect on how this year is ending and why things happened the way they have for the President after just one year in office.
How many people are just plain tired of hearing about this health care thing? President Obama during his run for office stated that tackling the health care issue was one of his immediate goals as President, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that he approached it the way that he did.  I must admit that it is important to most Americans, but enough is enough. Finally, a joint vote that would require just a simple majority vote in January, and the whole health care thing will be put to rest. Amen brother!!!!!
This upcoming vote most likely is one of the most scary votes that President Obama has to witness. His success and future as President kind of rides on this vote. But, it would basically take the members in his own party to defeat it, since the Democrats have more seated senators than the Republicans.
It has been a long hard fought race, very similar in nature to his Presidential run, but if the vote is in his favor, the President will gain another wind to continue to repeal the workings of the prior Republican governments before him. After the Health care vote, then would be the time for him to try and mend fences again to try and muster the American people again to his favor. Now only if people would only gain jobs, and the markets started to boom again. He would fulfill previously made promises to the U.S. people. The Republicans will continue to make claim that the stock markets were going to bounce back anyway, always negating any credit deserved of to the President. On the other hand, the Democrats will take full credit for the successes of President Obama.
To summarize my view on the Congress this year, I'm not so sure that I'd agree with the fact that the Democrats should take credit. Actually, I believe that both houses of Congress performed a terrible job for President Obama. One delay after another in both the House and the Senate for just about everything that went through the Senators chambers. At the end, things seem to turn out in President Obama's favor, but what is it going to take to get the Senators to act on what is right instead of just always voting towards party lines and their own party's own point of view.
Many people believe that this country is doomed, and they say so for all kinds of reasons. The Republicans sincerely believe that President Obama is bankrupting the country. They forget that when President Bush took office for his first term, this country was in the 'green' and was not in debt, thanks to President Bill Clinton, a Democrat. But what happened as soon as Bush became President. Yes, the outcome of 911 could have been predicted and even prevented if President Bush's Congress, FBI and Secret Service performed as they should. There is tons of proof that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the CIA knew of the terrorist threats to the United States, but President Bush was not advised as he should have been, and the inevitable happened, unfortunately for the lives of thousands of Americans in New York City, Virginia, and Pennsylvania on that fateful day of Sept. 11, 2001.
President Obama now happens to be the man chosen by this country to put the pieces back together, and he is doing it his way. He wasn't the person in-charge when this country was attacked, George Bush was. He wasn't the person in charge when Iraq was invaded, George Bush was. He wasn't the person in charge when thousands of Americans started loosing their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, George Bush was. He wasn't the person who did absolutely nothing to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, George Bush was. He wasn't the person in charge when the country experienced one of the worst economic collapses since the depression, George Bush was. So where was George Bush all this time? Besides fighting the terrorists in Iraq and almost forgetting about the Al-Queda home of Afghanistan, President Bush spend allot of his time in retreat at Camp David, and what do you guess he was doing so much of his time.. How about reading books!?$#!?#@$! That my friends, is a known fact!!!!
The last thing President Obama wanted to become was a war President. Unfortunately for him, he inherited that title from the previous president, thanks to the one and only George Bush. Now for a man like Bush to have acquired so much 'bad luck' if that's what you want to call it, you can only wonder how he can live with himself. But now, just like the health care issue, it's time to put George Bush to bed too. Regardless of who you voted for in 2008, Barack Obama is our President, and will be for at least another 3 years. After all that he's done already, he would be the first to tell you that he's just getting started. He must be doing things right.. How many war Presidents have secured the Nobel Peace Prize. Zero, zilch, nota... Not a single war President has. That's because no other President in recent history has tried to bring together so many nations with the common theme of peace amongst everyone. He truly has no boundaries when it comes to promoting peace. He speaks to leaders that the Republican presidents would never utter a word too. How else can you break the barrier between people of nations who kind of despise each other. So far, President Obama has displayed the correct decisions, whether people agree with him or not. Time will tell if his tenure as President was a good one.

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Afghan Warlord wants to strike a deal with the United States

Which U.S. President gave money to the Taliban militants during the Afghanistan/Soviet conflict in the 1980's? It is unknown by me at this time if it was either President Jimmy Carter or President Ronald Reagan, but it was one of the two. The Soviets invaded Afghanistan on President Carters watch, so most likely it may have been President Carter. How much was given to the Afghanistan's, namely to now the Afghan warlord and former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar? How about $600 million in U.S.funds to help them fight the Soviets. Isn't that an eye opener?!
Now, Mr. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is in the news as a leader with the pro-Taliban Hizb-e-Islami militant group. He now claims that he wants to help us, mainly claiming that the group he represents would stop attacks against coalition forces, and stop recruiting members while stopping the intimidation of local citizens. Wow, he is so gracious. He disgusts me. He is regarded as one of the top maverick militant players in Afghanistan. I guess he must now be feeling the heat as more than 13,000 members of NATO's International Security Assistance Forces are now fighting in Helmand. Over half are American troups. A total of about 21,000 U.S. troops now are fighing in Afghanistan, shifting the focus from Iraq. Most of the others are from the United Kingdom. In actuality, it looks as if he wants us to help him again by leaving Afghanistan. This notion may spark the interest of conservative leaders here at home, but I highly doubt if President Barack Obama would fall for such a trap. What guarantees can President Obama get from a group of militants that cannot be trusted? Maybe the militant leader wants to strike up a deal because he knows that he cannot win against a far superior force, the United States.

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Problems for Obama in 2009 - - Can He Keep His Promises?

The Presidential campaign that ended with a victory for Barack Obama was full of unexpected events throughout. He has campaigned two years for what? Of course, the President of the United States, and everything practically went his way, except for a few primary campaigns that went Hilary's way. Not only has he gained the Presidency, but he has to take over a myriad of problems and no one can predict what will happen this year.
Obama promises to fix the economy, and bring our troops home from Iraq and Afghanastan. It is safe to say the the economy will be the number one issue this year, and will continue to bottom out, and the price of gasoline may go lower, but there are signs now that the gas prices will creep up again. It looks as if the middle east crisis will linger into Obama's presidency, and that will be a foreign policy problem just waiting to face his Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton. Continued violence in Gaza will continue to plague Obama and Clinton, but he also must work on one of his campaign promises at the same time, and that would be to decide how and when to pull our troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. I believe that he can do it and will do it, and he has an excellent chance to gain a second term in 2012. The cost of these two wars are taking a toll on the deficit, but if Obama settles the wars and the middle east settles down, 2009 will definitely be a banner year for Barack Obama and for the country for that manner.
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Obama vs. Bush in 2008 - Monumental Differences

2008 is finally coming to a close, but not without the rise and fall of one of the worst presidents in modern history, to a historic election which nominated a black man to become the next President of the United States, in an election where a prior first lady of the United States almost won the nomination to be the Democratic Candidate to run against one of the oldest Republican candidates of all time, who ran with a female to be his Vice-President.
When you look at President Bush, you can't help but wonder where this mans brain was for the last couple of years. Yes, it is true that the President of the United States kind of lives in a bubble, since his direct communication is mostly cutoff from the entire world. His perception of what is happening comes directly from the people around him, and honestly, I think that his staff did a very poor job in advising the President of what was actually happening around the world. I don't think that the President even had much of a chance to watch TV. Everything he sees is usually filtered by the secret service as a form of protection for him and his family. I honestly believe that he didn't have a clue about the economy situation, and most of the other disasters that happened during his term that will define his Presidency. His advisers need nothing less than jail terms, as they ill-advised the President from the war in Iraq, needed disaster relief in New Orleans, National Security that was too low that may have caused the 911 disaster in New York City, to the failing economy. He had a wonderful chance to become one of the most liked Presidents since Ronald Reagan, but instead his popularity fizzled into an all time low for an American President in modern times, mainly due to the Iraq war.
Thousands of people have been killed in a war that we didn't need to be involved with in the first place.Their families will be forever without their loved ones. Possible future children of these dead soldiers will never be born. The reputation of the United States will forever be tarnished with the actions of an administration that failed the American people. And of course the failing economy is topping off the year which is proving to be one of the worst years in history. People's life savings fizzled into almost nothing, and stocks plumited. People lost their homes because of a failing job market. Because of the so-called 'FREDDY' companies, ignorant people signed mortgages that they could never pay back, thus the historic figures of bankruptcy and foreclosures. What a grim outlook 2008 had taken us to.
So now what?! Only in America will a country come together is such difficult times and do the unthinkable in hopes to beat the crises everyone is facing. Only in America will such fierce competition for the White House would produce a black man, Barack Obama to become the next President of the United States. Just 20 days, and the inauguration will be history and we will have a black family in the White House.
No other President in the last fifty years in my opinion will be more ready to take the reigns of this country and do everything in his power to make things better than Barack Obama. He has a level headed mind, including the intelligence, patience, and virtues needed to be a successful President. No other President in modern history drew the attention to him than Barack Obama during the election process. No other President was as popular as Barack Obama before his inauguration. Only time will tell. The present in time always becomes history, and it already is very interesting what the history books will say about Barack Obama, as he has already started writing the history books with his election.
As the days tick down towards the beginning of his Presidency, you can catch glimpses of his actions on a daily basis, as President-Elect Obama announces the creation of his cabinet and other staff positions. He has been virtually busy with work, in direct contrast of the incumbent president, George Bush, who is doing nothing more than trying to help write the history books trying to convince people that he has done things right. Regardless of what he writes, in my opinion, Bush will be known as one of the worst Presidents in U.S. history. Many people will tell you that he's done more for the Iraqi people than he has done for the American People.
Yes, it is true that America was never again attacked since 911, but even the steps that were taken since then could be done much better. With the creation of Homeland Security, not everything has been put in place to secure our borders, especially along the Mexican border. What will Barack do? One thing is for sure, he will do what he can do in his power to protect the American people, starting by pulling out troops from Iraq and put them where they are needed, Afghanistan. He will not initiate such a change in our military presence without a plan of withdrawal which he will demand be kept. He will expect the Afghanistan's to take over their country, assist and run out Al-Kida, the number one group of terrorism in the world in this day and time. Then he will expect the leaders in Afghanistan to control terrorism so that he can send troops home and put an end to our over-bearing presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. I can see no less than 8 years of the Presidency for Barack Obama, as so many people believe that he is the ONLY answer to the worldly problems we now face. Again, another opinion of mine, that Barack Obama will accomplish more good for the American people during his first year in office than President Bush has done in 8 years.
Up front, you can say that I am biased, and I most likely am biased. You can say that I'm a liberal thinker, and that I am. You can say allot about me if you wanted too, but all I'm trying to do is bring out the truth about two Presidents that will have affected our lives and the lives of our children in a day and age where proper leadership is key to health, wealth, security and happiness..

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