President Obama Makes Surprise Visit To Afghanistan

President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to Afghanistan today although a proposed meeting between the President and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai was unable to go forward due to inclement weather and security concerns.

President Barack Obama slipped unannounced into dangerous Afghanistan on Friday, one year after widening an ever deadlier war and just days before a pivotal review about the 9-year-plus conflict.

Under intense security, Obama landed in night's darkness after a clandestine departure from the White House on Thursday, where plans of his trip into the war zone were tightly guarded.

The White House said rough weather forced Obama to abruptly drop plans to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul. The White House determined the wind, dust and cloud cover made it unsafe for the president to fly by helicopter from the huge military complex here to the presidential palace 30 miles away.

In a rapidly changing sequence of events, the White House then said they would speak by secure videoconference — but later said that, too, was dropped. Instead, the two leaders were expected to speak by phone.

While the meeting with Karzai didn't go as planned, the President will get to meet and greet and thank the troops at Bagram air base, and that's worth the visit all by itself.