Obama Makes Surprise Visit to Troops in Afghanistan

President Obama on Friday is making a surprise visit to troops in Afghanistan as casualties mount since the U.S. escalated the war last year
Obama is in the war-torn country to meet with President Hamid Karzai and Gen. David Petraeus just days before a critical review about the nine-year war. The U.S. deployed an additional 30,000 troops to the country, with all them in place by this summer.

The higher casualty numbers reflect heavier fighting, especially in the south and east, as NATO forces push deep into insurgent strongholds in a bid to help President Hamid Karzai's government gain control of more areas of the country and reverse the Taliban's momentum in the nine-year war.

Obama's visit to Afghanistan is his latest trip abroad since his party took a beating in the midterm elections last month. After Republicans captured the House and increased their ranks in the Senate, Obama took a 10-day, four-country trip to Asia that produced mixed results. Then he traveled to a NATO summit in Portugal.