US President Barack Obama (L) speaks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai during a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Kabul. Obama landed in Afghanistan Sunday for a surprise first visit as US commander-in-chief and as his huge surge of 30,000 troops, designed to end the eight-year war, gathers pace. (AFP/Jim Watson)
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks to the troops at Bagram Air Base in Kabul, March 28, 2010. Obama arrived unannounced in Afghanistan on Sunday, his first visit to the war zone that could define his presidency since his election as U.S. commander-in-chief. Air Force One landed in darkness at Bagram airfield north of the Afghan capital, and Obama was whisked by helicopter to Hamid Karzai's palace in Kabul, where he was greeted by the Afghan president and a band playing the U.S. national anthem. REUTERS/Jim Young (AFGHANISTAN - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY)