US President Barack Obama's surprise trip to Afghanistan comes even as his re-election campaign has set off a debate about the propriety of using Osama bin Laden's killing to make a political argument in the battle with Mitt Romney.
The trip will give Mr. Obama a fresh view of the war he inherited and expanded. The president plans to announce an agreement with the leaders of Afghanistan that will guide the deployment of American troops in the country as they make a transition out of the war over the next two and a half years.
But the timing of Mr. Obama's visit to Afghanistan - and the address to the nation that he is scheduled to give Tuesday night - could add fuel criticism that he is politicizing the war on terrorism for his own gain, The New York Times reports.
Mr. Romney and his allies have already accused the president of inappropriately turning the anniversary of the raid on Bin Laden's Pakistan camp into a partisan attack by releasing a video that questions whether Mr. Romney would have authorized the raid.
"Let's not make the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden a politically divisive event," Mr. Romney said on "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday. "There are plenty of differences between President Obama and myself, but let's not make up ones."
Mr. Romney made those comments even as Mr. Obama was secretly flying to Afghanistan on Air Force One - a trip that was, as is standard, shrouded in secrecy because of the security risks of sending a president into a war zone.
Such events are one of the biggest advantages of incumbency, giving a sitting president the opportunity to appear presidential on a world stage. On Monday, Mr. Obama said he was not making the Bin Laden killing political, telling reporters at the White House, "I hardly think you've seen any excessive celebration taking place here."
In retrospect, Mr. Obama may have been obliquely referring to his planned trip when he suggested that it is not beyond the bounds of propriety for the country to mark the anniversary of bin Laden's death. "I think for us to use that time for some reflection, to give thanks to those who participated, is entirely appropriate, and that's what's been taking place," he said.
Still, the trip brings into sharper focus the debate that Mr. Obama's campaign sparked with the ad last week. The ad raised the question of whether Mr. Romney would have made the decision to send the Navy SEAL team into Pakistan had he been in the Oval Office. "Which path would Mitt Romney have taken?" the ad asked.
Mr. Romney's allies reacted furiously, insisting that Mr. Romney would have done the same as the president and chastising Mr. Obama for what they deemed an unfair political attack. One of the fiercest criticisms came from Senator John McCain of Arizona, who accused his onetime rival of trying to score political points on an issue that should be bipartisan.
"This is the same president who said, after Bin Laden was dead, that we shouldn't ‘spike the ball' after the touchdown," Mr. McCain said in a statement Friday. "And now Barack Obama is not only trying to score political points by invoking Osama bin Laden, he is doing a shameless end-zone dance to help himself get re-elected."
Mr. Romney and the president's other critics will have to step gingerly as they deal with Mr. Obama's visit to Afghanistan. In a statement on Tuesday, Mr. Romney praised the president's actions a year ago today. "I commend all those who planned and conducted the bin Laden raid, and I applaud President Obama for giving the go-ahead for the mission," he said in a statement released by his campaign.
But later in the day, Mr. Romney appeared in New York City with Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York. Mr. Giuliani accused the president of using the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks as negative campaigning, calling it "a mistake."
Tommy Vietor, the National Security Council spokesman, said that the trip had long been planned and that it should not spark criticism.
Mr. Vietor said the agreement to be signed by Mr. Obama and Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan, was the result of 20 months of negotiations. He said the president wanted to sign it in Afghanistan before a NATO meeting this month in Chicago. "A trip like this is planned significantly in advance," Mr. Vietor said. "It's impossible to predict the political news of the day. Obviously that has nothing to do with it."
