Obama 1st Lag of Trip To Afghanistan and Visit With U.S. Troops in Kuwait

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Obama in Afghanistan
Source:
Politico
The campaign announced early Saturday morning that Obama was on the ground in Kabul, Afghanistan. The U.S. military later said Obama was greeting U.S. troops at Jalalabad airfield in eastern Afghanistan.
Obama made a secret stop in Kuwait and visited U.S. service members, then flew on to Kabul.
Obama and his party also met with troops and military brass at the huge Bagram Air Base, according to reporters on the ground.
A blogger briefly posted word Friday that Obama was in Kuwait, but the campaign refused to confirm it and the post was removed. The campaign had not given the dates of the trip, insisting that the press refer to it as “upcoming.”
Robert Gibbs, the campaign’s senior strategist for communications and message, announced the beginning of the trip with a 3:24 a.m. e-mail to reporters:
“At approximately 3:15 AM Eastern/2:15 AM Central, I received a phone call telling me that Sen. Obama had landed at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. Since leaving Washington on Thursday, Sen. Obama had stopped and visited troops in Kuwait.”

Scenes include him greeting the troops, playing basketball with the troops, shaking hands and signing autographs.

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Senator Barack Obama at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan with, from left: William B. Wood, the American ambassador to Afghanistan; Senator Chuck Hagel; Sgt. Maj. Vincent Camacho; Senator Jack Reed; and Maj. Gen. Jeffrey J. Schloesser

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This video above is from Fox News.

Obama Opens a Foreign Tour in Afghanistan
New York Times …for entire article
The governor of Nangarhar Province, Gul Agha Shirzai, a former mujahedeen commander who has a brutal past but is favored by the United States as a doer, was the only Afghan official to meet the senators, along with the United States ambassador and generals.
Mr. Shirzai, who is thought to have his own aspirations in Afghan presidential elections next year, has been praised for his tough action against poppy cultivation and official corruption in his province.
“Barack Obama thanked the officials of Nangarhar and the people of Nangarhar for eliminating poppy cultivation, fighting corruption, and he promised that the United States would give more help to Afghanistan and especially to Nangarhar,” he said by telephone after the one hour meeting.
The senators flew back to Bagram air base, north of Kabul, at 5 p.m., the governor said.
from Wild Thing: So the first Afghan official Obama meets is one who has aspirations to replace Karzai….how interesting.

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Soldiers Overjoyed To Meet Obama In Kuwait
Obama Makes Stop On Way To Afghanistan In Whirlwind Tour Of Middle East, Europe
cbs Chicago
A group soldiers serving overseas, including some from the Chicago area, were overjoyed Saturday when presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama visited in Kuwait.
As CBS 2’s Susan Carlson reports, Obama stopped in at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait before making his first trip to Afghanistan. Camp Arifjan is a major gateway for U.S. soldiers moving into and out of Iraq.
The soldiers applauded thunderously when Obama arrived; one of them could barely contain herself as she sported a Chi-town sign.
When the cheers settled down, the first thing Obama said to the soldiers was, “Thank you.”
“I am so grateful to all of you,” Obama said.
Obama also talked briefly about military strategy.
“In speaking to commanding officers here, what’s clear is we’ve really perfected a lot of systems to move equipment, supplies and obviously troops in and out of Iraq, as well as some of the work that’s being done to coordinate our activities in Afghanistan,” he said.
Obama also impressed the soldiers with his basketball strategy on the court. He joked to those watching, “You came out here because you wanted to see me get beat by your fellow soldiers.”
And he took time to do a lot of hand shaking before moving on to his next stop.

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Obama greeted troops in Kuwait before flying to Afghanistan

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From an email from one of the soldiers in the land of sand, in Jalalabad.

“B. Hussein Obama has come and gone on his visit to Jalalabad Air Field in eastern Afghanistan. He landed about 1515 local and was gone by 1800, which is more than enough time for any Democrat to check the Natioanl Defense box, and he is now just as qualified as John McCain to speak on all matters related to Operation Enduring Freedom.
During his visit he toured the Task Force (TF) Bayonet 173rd Brigade (Sky Soldiers!) Headquarters and Tactical Operations Center (TOC). I spoke to a few soldiers who shook his hand but privately told me they would never vote for him.
lol It’s not a joke, it just sounds like one…but in all fairness I understand he went to Kabul and Kandahar as well.
God Bless, Captain (Now a Major) “

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Wild Thing’s comment…….

First a comment on the email from my friend:
He landed about 1515 local and was gone by 1800, which is more than enough time for any Democrat to check the Natioanl Defense box, and he is now just as qualified as John McCain to speak on all matters related to Operation Enduring Freedom.
“He landed about 1515 local and was gone by 1800”
ROFLMAO….the Obamination has landed!!!! Perhaps if stayed longer he would have been called to the Islamic prayer. Now does that make Obama qualified for combat pay for the July pay period. heh heh
The soldiers applauded thunderously when Obama arrived; one of them could barely contain herself as she sported a Chi-town sign.
Jouranlistic license is an understatement when it comes to this article.
Overjoyed? Ya right. I’m sure everyone who serves is just thrilled. As for Osama doing any “fact” finding on his ‘whirlwind tour’, the only facts he’s going to find is the bathrooms aren’t the same as they are in America, because spending three hours in a country doesn’t leave much time to doing anything but shake hands, pose for the camera’s, and take a dump. there is no “fact finding” going on.
As this garbage story shows, it’s nothing but sham, media on a whirlwind Obama promotion tour.
My friend said one of her colleagues, a doctor she works with, told her his daughter was one of 154 troops that were interviewed by the MSM. Only 4 soldiers were against our mission in Iraq. THOSE were on the news report. they never included the other 150 ! She was furious!
Overwhelming black and half are female, strong Obama demographic.This is the truth, but the troops that were mugging him for a handshake and autograph were 95% black, and they were overjoyed, just as much as the 95% black non-military that are voting for him—because he is black. I find that sad that anyone would vote for a person because of their skin color.
The thing is there are some great and experienced black people who would make great candidates – one that we really need to get into the pipeline is LTC Allen West, running for congress in Florida.
The only thing is so many of the blacks would turn on him because he’s a republican what they call an “uncle Tom”. sheesh!
And get this, oh my gosh! I about gagged when the CBSNews reporterette made a pointed announcement that (my paraphrase)
“Obama is sacrificing valuable time to make this trip when he could be doing more Presidential campaigning back in the USA.”