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Aides said the anniversary of bin Laden’s killing was not a focus of the trip. But they do not mind that Obama’s mission will serve as a reminder, six months before Election Day.
More than 1,800 U.S. forces have been killed and 15,700 more have been wounded in Afghanistan.
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq combined have cost almost $1.3 trillion. And public support for keeping troops in Afghanistan seems lower than ever.
Obama has gone twice before to Afghanistan as president, most recently in December 2010, and once to Iraq in 2009. All such trips, no matter how carefully planned, carry the weight and the risks of considerable security challenges. Just last month, the Taliban began near-simultaneous assaults on embassies, government buildings and NATO bases in Kabul.
Still, it would have been unusual for Obama to sign the "strategic partnership" agreement without Karzai at his side.
The deal is essential for locking in America’s commitment and Afghan’s sovereignty when the post-war period comes. Negotiations have dragged as Afghan officials have demanded specific assurances, financial and otherwise.
Both sides have scrambled to get a deal before the NATO conference in Chicago later this month. Negotiators seemed to clear the way for Obama and Karzai by finding agreement over the conduct of night raids and authority over detainees.
The president was to travel back from Kabul to the Bagram base to spend some time with troops.
He was then to give his speech in a straight-to-camera delivery reminiscent of an Oval Office address, before flying back to the U.S. He is expected back in Washington on Wednesday afternoon.
The United States has 88,000 troops in Afghanistan. An additional 40,000 in coalition forces remain from other nations.
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Obama has already declared that NATO forces will hand over the lead combat role to Afghanistan in 2013 as the U.S. and its allies work to get out by the end of 2014.
One important unsettled issue, however, is how many U.S. troops may remain after that.
U.S. officials are eying a residual force of perhaps 20,000, many in support roles for the Afghan armed forces, and some U.S. special forces for counterterror missions. The size and scope of that U.S. force — if one can be agreed upon on at all, given the public moods and political factors in both nations — will probably have to be worked out later in a separate agreement.
Support for keeping American troops in Afghanistan is dropping all along the political spectrum, a new Pew Research poll says. And just 38 percent of people say the military effort is going well, down from 51 percent only a month ago.
Overall, polling shows, Obama gets favorable marks compared to Romney in handling terrorism, and the president’s public approval for his handling of the Afghan war has hovered around 50 percent of late.
The trip allows Obama to hold forth as commander in chief in the same week he plans to launch his official campaign travel with rallies in Virginia and Ohio.
"We’ve spent the last three-and-a-half years cleaning up after other folks’ messes," Obama said at a fundraiser last weekend. "The war in Iraq is over. We’re transitioning in Afghanistan. Al-Qaida is on the ropes. We’ve done what we said we’d do."
AP National Security Writer Anne Gearan, Deputy Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius contributed to this story.
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