President Obama Goes to Afghanistan

Visiting the troops who are, after all, engaged in our most important effort:

Air Force One landed in darkness at Bagram airfield north of the Afghan capital, and Obama was whisked by helicopter to Karzai’s palace in Kabul, where he was greeted by the Afghan president and a band playing the U.S. national anthem.

“I want to send a strong message that the partnership between the United States and Afghanistan is going to continue. We have already seen progress with respect to the military campaign against extremism in the region,” Obama told Karzai in front of reporters inside the palace.

“We also want to continue to make progress on … good governance, rule of law, anti-corruption efforts — all these things end up resulting in an Afghanistan that is more prosperous, more secure, independent,” he added.

Karzai said he hoped “the partnership will continue in the future toward a stable, strong, peaceful Afghanistan that can sustain itself, that can move forward into the future.”

Perhaps a little less concentration on the fundamentally flawed health care and a bit more on the War on Terrorism and the economy? This, at least, would be some change we could believe in.