U.S. ambassador walks streets of Kabul

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan strolled the streets of Kabul on Wednesday, chatting with schoolchildren and visiting a mosque during an impromptu city tour.

Though insurgent attacks have skyrocketed across Afghanistan this year, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry’s 15-minute stroll — while wearing a business suit and with no visible body armor — underscores the fact that the Afghan capital remains relatively safe.

An American ambassador in Iraq would never have taken an unplanned stroll down a busy city street during the deadliest years of the war there because of the extreme dangers he would have faced.

After his walk, the U.S. ambassador told The Associated Press that getting out and meeting people was “extremely valuable” and that he often takes short walks around the city.

“The mission here is to secure the people, secure the community,” Eikenberry said. “You’ve got to be out here getting a sense of what the people are thinking in order to do that.”

Outside a woodworking shop, Eikenberry talked with 37-year-old Sayed Hassan Barwazi, a community leader. Barwazi thanked the ambassador for coming out from behind the embassy’s blast-proof walls and asked the U.S. to “pay attention to schools and parks.”

While the two spoke, a crowd of about 100 gathered on the street, including several police carrying AK-47 rifles. A NATO convoy cruised by, and an Afghan man with a trained monkey on a leash walked past.

Throughout the walk, Eikenberry asked schoolchildren about their favorite subjects in school.

A former three-star general who was the top U.S. military commander in the country from 2005 to early 2007, Eikenberry has traveled all over the country and is regarded as well-versed in Afghanistan’s history and complex politics.

Thousands of U.S. and other foreign citizens live in Kabul, including aid workers and diplomats. Many are driven around in well-protected SUVs and with armed guards, though others ride bikes and walk short distances. Doing that can be dangerous, though; foreigners have been attacked and kidnapped in Kabul while walking and driving.

The reason for Wednesday’s trip was to visit an old madrassa — an Islamic religious school — whose walls and roof were torn apart by bullet holes and mortar fire from the country’s civil war in the mid-1990s. The U.S. is giving $120,000 to help restore the structure, which will house classrooms for more than 300 students when complete.

In Washington, President Barack Obama said Wednesday there will be no quick decision on whether to send more U.S. troops into the widening war in Afghanistan, saying “my determination is to get this right.”

The president’s comments came one day after Adm. Mike Mullen, his top military adviser as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, endorsed an increase in U.S. forces as likely necessary to battle a deepening insurgency. The U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, also has delivered a grim assessment of the war and is expected to follow up soon with a request for thousands of additional troops.

“I’m going to take a very deliberate process in making those decisions,” said Obama, taking questions from reporters as he sat in the Oval Office with visiting Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. “And so I just want to be absolutely clear, because there’s been a lot of discussion in the press about this: There is no immediate decision pending on resources.”

Even as Obama spoke about a methodical war review, administration officials were briefing key lawmakers on McChrystal’s review and on White House proposals for 46 benchmarks to gauge progress in the stalemated Afghan war and the hunt for al-Qaida in neighboring Pakistan.