By GINGER ADAMS OTIS with AP and Reuters
Posted: 4:26 am
July 20, 2008
Barack Obama chatted with Afghan governors and toured a hotbed of Taliban activity yesterday as he conducts a fact-finding mission of America's war zones and thanks GIs "for their heroic work."
His first-ever trip to Afghanistan and Iraq is the initial leg of a campaign-season tour of that's expected to also take him to other parts of the Middle East this week.
After touching down at Bagram Air Base in Kabul, the congressional delegation including Obama spent a day touring.
The presumptive Democratic nominee began his Sunday with breakfast with American troops in Kabul before an expected meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
It wasn't clear when Obama would head to Iraq. A meeting with Iraqi leader Nouri al-Maliki is on his itinerary, but the exact timing and location are being withheld for security reasons.
Maliki yesterday offered an apparent endorsement of Obama's campaign pledge to withdraw US troops from Iraq within 16 months of being elected.
American troops should quit the country "as soon as possible," Maliki was quoted by the German magazine Der Spiegel.
Before boarding his plane in DC Thursday, Obama said he wouldn't be getting into policy details during his sit-down with Maliki.
"We have one president at a time," he said.
"I want to, obviously, talk to the commanders. And I want to thank our troops for the heroic work that they've been doing."
Obama made a two-hour pit stop en route to Afghanistan at Camp Arifjan, the main US military base in Kuwait and a major gateway for American soldiers coming in and out of Iraq.
He shot some hoops with soldiers after getting an overview from military commanders.
Once in Afghanistan, the congressional contingent pushed east into the Tora Bora region, a center of Taliban and al Qaeda activity.
At Jalalabad Air Field, near where Osama bin Laden is believed to be hiding, Obama spoke with a former warlord about the threat of militant groups along the Pakistani border.
"[Obama] said he will support reconstruction, development and security all over the country," said Massoud Ahmad Azizi, chief of staff for Gov. Gul Agha Sherzai.
A central argument of Obama's presidential campaign against John McCain is that the war in Afghanistan deserves more attention and troops.
Copyright Reuters.
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