AFGHANISTAN:BARACK OBAMA flew out of Afghanistan yesterday after a two-day visit with a warning that the country's position in the war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda was "precarious" and "urgent".
Mr Obama has promised that, if elected president in November, he will send 10,000 more US troops to Afghanistan to bolster the 36,000 already there, and intends to press European countries to become more engaged in the fighting.
The trip to Afghanistan marked the start of a week-long tour that takes in Iraq, Israel, the West Bank and Europe. Amid tighter than usual security, especially for a politician only seeking office, he was scheduled to arrive in Baghdad from Kabul last night.
The whole trip is critical to his chances of being elected. Any gaffes would be amplified by the huge media interest, while a successful trip could help counter criticism from his Republican rival John McCain that he lacks foreign policy experience.
The pitfalls became clear when his campaign team announced yesterday that the Victory Column would be the location for a planned speech in Berlin on Thursday, the centrepiece of his European visit.
In what could be an extraordinary display of support for a still relatively low-level politician, it has been predicted the event could attract anywhere from between 10,000 to a million people.
But some German politicians described the choice of location as unfortunate, questioning whether Mr Obama's team were aware of the Nazi connotations, even though it is now more commonly associated with events such as the annual Love Parade.
Yesterday, Mr Obama went to the heavily guarded presidential palace in Kabul for a potentially awkward lunch with President Hamid Karzai, whom he accused last week of failing to leave his bunker to tackle the rebuilding of Afghanistan and fighting the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
Afghan officials afterwards described the meeting as "positive", saying they had discussed the war and how to tackle corruption and expanding poppy production. Afterwards, in an interview with the US network CBS, Mr Obama signalled that the country would be at the forefront of his foreign policy: "We have to understand that the situation is precarious and urgent . . . and I believe this has to be the central focus, the central front, in the battle against terrorism." He added: "I think the situation is getting urgent enough that we have to start doing something now."
With pressure growing inside the US for cross-border raids into Pakistan in search of al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels, Mr Obama said the US needed to push Pakistan harder to go after al-Qaeda training camps.
He described catching Osama bin Laden as having "symbolic value" but said that would not be "sufficient" by itself to end what he refers to as the "war on terror".
Mr Obama, who is in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of a congressional delegation, arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday after a short stopover in Kuwait. He is scheduled to meet the Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki today inside Baghdad's Green Zone. Mr Obama is expected to raise his plans for an early withdrawal of US combat troops.
Mr Maliki, in an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel, was reported to have agreed with Mr Obama's proposed 16-month phased withdrawal of combat troops.
The Bush administration, which during the last fortnight has begun to shift towards Mr Obama's positions on Iran and Iraq, announced on Friday that it was willing to negotiate with Iraq a timetable for withdrawal, although without mentioning any dates, speaking instead about a vague "general time horizon".
Confirming the trip is aimed at the US audience, Mr Obama has set up interviews with the US television networks all week.
Mr McCain, who was at a baseball stadium in New York yesterday, described his opponent's trip as "an overseas campaign rally".
- (Guardian service)