it could mark the beginning of the end of the war there. listen. >> neither americans nor the afghan people asked for this war, yet for a decade we've stood together to drive al qaeda from its camps to battle an insurgency and to give the people of afghanistan the possibility to live in peace and in dignity. the wages of war have been great for both our nations but today with the signing of this strategic partnership agreement we look forward to a future of peace. >> our nick payton-walsh is live in kabul. there were attacks in kabul two weeks ago that really rocked the capital. >> reporter: absolutely, this is a place where presidential security detail didn't feel enormously comfortable bringing him in daylight. u.s. and afghan officials doing their best to quash rumors about seven or eight hours ago that he was already in kabul. as you saw the president there addressing a hangar, many of those troops will perhaps be on their way home, bagram being a hub or many troops returning back to the united states and i think keen to try to suggest as he said a year ago the tide of war is still receding, choosing this anniversary, the death of bin laden, the man for americans the reason why they came to afghanistan, choosing the anniversary of his death to take this narrative an extra stage forwards and explaining exactly how america will tie up the loose ends of the decades-long war and how his presence will look like in the years ahead. >> nick what is the strategic partnership agreement? it doesn't talk about funding. those say this is more about, this isn't really, some saying kind of sets out the logistics of what's going to happen over the next ten years, after 2014. >> it's very strong on symbolism, not heavy on substance. it's important for america that it was signed, that it happened because for months there were outstanding issues that made it look like it may never come to fruition. it's important it was signed ahead of this vital summit in chicago in may, where nato allies have to put forward their contributions, financial and military for the years ahead but it leaves these vital questions, how much money is walking going to give kabul, and puts aside the vital question what kind of military presence will america have here in the years after nato's withdrawal, and what limitation als will there be? >> 20,000 troops from the so-called surge are supposed to leave starting in e amanpour is spoke to president ckarzai abou two weeks ago. >> this is symbolic but it will make a difference when it's completely negotiated because crucial elements have not been negotiated. president karzai wants to know he's not being abandoned. afghanistan wants to know it's not being abandoned, there will be a ten-year time period u.s. force also be there, by no means the same numbers. >> the president wanted to go to sign it there as a symbol that there is a commitment to afghanistan. >> to afghanistan, pakistan, to the taliban, to any of those who wish to seek a u.s. vacuum and try to fill that vacuum. the question is what does this mean is there there are important issues not negotiated. for instance the strategic forces agreement will afghanistan grant american forces immunity. >> a huge issue in iraq as well. >> it collapsed the ideal in iraq so no americans could stay in iraq. they wouldn't allow that. >> that's a sensitive issue given what's happened the last couple of months ina s accused number of afghan civilians. >> i asked president karzai will you expect somebody like sergeant bales to be tried under an afghan legal system, he said yes but he said it will depend on the relationship between the u.s. and afghanistan at the time. and the other thing, of course, is the afghans are now saying absolutely publicly there will be no drones allowed to take off from afghanistan to target terrorists wherever, in pakistan or else where. this is also a big issue. >> huge issue. >> when the u.s. takes its forces out, it will rely increasingly as it has already on the drone strikes so that's an issue, if they can't take off. >> the number of drone strikes by the obama administration has skyrocketed compared to under the bush administration and peter bergen recounts in his new book the impact it's had on al qaeda, the fear that drone strikes has caused al qaeda, osama bin laden wrote about it himself. >> absolutely right but still the militants in pakistan we saw two weeks ago with the audacious attack some say came across from pakistan and penetrated the very heart of the government, didn't get to the palace in kabul but it did get to the parliament and the other, of course, issue is remember, we all remember when the united states packed up and left after the soviets were defeated, this is what gave the space to the mujahadin, that led to the taliban that led to al qaeda that led to 9/11. this is what they're saying will not happen because we'll have presence here. >> the republican criticism of president obama announcing this withdrawal timetable you're allowing the taliban, giving them a timetable they can just wait it out. >> the crucial issue anderson and this is absolutely crucial, the united states does not believe that they can, that this is winnable on the battlefield even though they're making progress. the taliban is still there. they want to negotiate with the taliban. even now, despite all the talk about it, there is none of that going on in any formal fashion and many senior afghan leaders who fought the taliban don't want the taliban back anyway. >> a lot to talk about with christiane, she'll be here over the next several hours. we'll bring you the president's address live. let's go to wolf. >> john king is here, he's been watching all of this unfold as well. didn't take very long for some republicans to be critical of the president, the timing of this visit to afghanistan, on this, the one-year anniversary of bin laden's death. senator james inhoff of oklahoma saying it's good that the president goes and visits the troops in afghanistan but then he adds this, "unfortunately, this president has allowed washington and campaign politics to dictate his strategy in afghanistan rather than the conditions on the ground." >> well that is from isaa inhoff, conservative, frequent critic of the military issues and other issues saying the president's plan to draw down most troops from 2014, you've heard that from senator mccain and senator lieberman, the independent who used to be a democrat, senator graham, that group of republicans who said wait a minute, mr. president, they think he should have left troops in iraq, think you need a residual force and in too much of a hurry to get out of afghanistan. senator inhoff is almost a reflexive critic, criticizes the president all the time. most other republicans, including mitt romney, have decided, wolf, at least until after the speech tonight to hold their fire. it's hard to criticize the commander in chief for visiting the troops. there have been huge, outstanding issues with the afghan government so they want to read this gnaw agreement and it's short, as nick paton-walsh, it's short. what are the rules of engagement, where will the bases be, close to the dangerous areas, more protected? watch over the next several days, it is clear both as the commander in chief and as a candidate for re-election the president will dominate this day and we'll see what happens when the republicans start to look at the details. >> we're waiting to hear from the president. fareed zakaria is joining us as well. fareed, it's a blunt question but can the united states really trust the afghan president, hamid karzai? >> i think they can trust hamid karzai wants to have a good relationship with the united states. he has wanted that from the start. he was one of the most pro-american politicians in afghanistan at the conference which he was in effect anointed. karzai is treading a careful line. he knows that pakistan, his next door neighbor, is powerful, controls many of the militant groups who attack him, so he can't be anti-pakistani. he needs the americans as a ballast against them and has good relations with the indians. he is playing a tri-cornered game. it's not personal preferences but the strategic national interests of afghanistan as he correctly sees them require a very close relationship with the united states so i think we can trust in those permanent national interests of afghanistan. we don't have to worry very much about mr. karzai but to be fair to him, he has on this core issue of having a relationship with the united states, he has been very firm. now, there have been occasions where there have been clashes because a sergeant issue with the koran burning but those issues never detracted from the broader perspective karzai has had, wanted to have a good relationship with the united states. >> what did you think of what the president had to say at that signing ceremony about an hour, hour and a half or so at the presidential palace in kabul? because he's walking a delicate line right now. he's got a lot of different audiences that he's got to appeal to. >> i thought that it was sober and understandably so. it seemed that perhaps the main audience as with any president and perhaps certainly an election year was the american people. he was acknowledging that this had been a long war, this has been our longest war. he was acknowledging that it had been a tough road, that there wasn't a clean victory that you could look at, and he was acknowledging the fact that the relationship had not always been perfect, so i thought it was an attempt to frame the relationship as one that was solid, sober, and purposeful. he pointed out we did not ask to come to -- we did not seek to come to afghanistan. we were in effect forced in because of at tacthe atakz of 9. >> fareed, it's john. connect the geopolitical dots with the domestic dots. there is no escaping the moment. this is the first anniversary of the raid that led to the death of about osama bin laden. the president of the united states being in afghanistan on this day and then speaking to the american people tonight on what is, you can't escape the big policy calculations or the domestic political campaign calculations. >> i think that the political calculations were more obvious in the release of that ad in which the obama campaign questioned whether mitt romney would have taken out osama bin laden. i think that was blatantly political, if you'd like. here i think the president is behaving like the president. i think that the fact he chose the one-year anniversary, there was going to be some kind of marking of that event. he had to go to afghanistan. we've been discussing there were all these issues that had to be resolved, that there was a need to shore up the relationship after three months of pretty bad stuff that had happened. you also had the need as christiane was pointing out to signal to the pakistanis, the iranians that all of the neighbors, we may be drawing down troops but we're not going anywhere. here he's on very strong ground of saying look i'm commander in chief. this is important business that had to be done. yes, they picked an auspicious day one might say but had that ad not come out, there'd be a lot less questioning of the politics of today. it is the shadow of that ad which frankly was unfortunate. >> stand by, because we're following the breaking news, we're getting new information on how dangerous a mission this has been for the president of the united states. he will not see daylight while's in afghanistan. he arrived close to 11:00 p.m. local time. it's going to be about 4:00 a.m. when he will address the american people local time, and shortly after that, he'll board air force one to fly back to washington. we're getting new information about the danger, the safety of the president of the united states in afghanistan right now. stay with us. the breaking news will continue in a moment. >> we did not choose this war. this war came to us on 9/11. and there are a whole bunch of folks here i'll bet who signed up after 9/11. kiwi. soy milk. impulse buy. gift horse. king crab. rhubarb pie. lettuce shower. made by bees. toucan sam. that's not cheese. grass fed. curry. gingersnaps. soup can tower. 5% cash back. right now, get 5% cash back at grocery stores. it pays to discover. at bank of america, we're lending and investing in communities across the country. from helping to revitalize a neighborhood in brooklyn... financing industries that are creating jobs in boston... providing funding for the expansion of a local business serving a diverse seattle community... and lending to ensure a north texas hospital continues to deliver quality care. because the more we can do in local neighborhoods and communities, the more we can help make opportunity possible. i've been crisscrossing the gulf i can tell you, down here,. people measure commitment by what's getting done. i'm mike utsler, and it's my job to make sure we keep making progress in the gulf. the twenty billion dollars bp committed has helped fund economic and environmental recovery. another fourteen billion dollars has been spent on response and cleanup. long-term, bp's made a five hundred million dollar commitment to the gulf of mexico research initiative... to support ten years of independent scientific research on the environment. results will continue to be shared with the public. and we're making sure people know that the gulf is open for business - the beaches are beautiful, the seafood is delicious. last year, many areas even reported record tourism seasons. the progress continues, but that doesn't mean our job is done. bp's still here, and we're still committed to seeing this through. these are some of the pictures we've just been receiving, president obama on the ground during the night in kabul, afghanistan, arriving at bagram airbase, helicoptered in to kabul where he signed the strategic partnership agreement with the president, he's going to be addressing the united stat states, addressing the american public within an hour. we'll bring that to you live in a special report. the president is in kabul, getting ready to speak to the american people just over an hour, 7:30 eastern time exactly. we want to bring in barbara starr to talk about the level of security and danger involved in this, for any sitting president to take a trip into a war zone, in kabul, two weeks ago as i said to nick there were massive attacks in that city. >> absolutely. in a situation like this, one of the key ways the secret service keeps the president safe is keeping its travel plans secret. it doesn't get much riskier than sending the president of the united states into a war zone. president obama arrived at bagram airbase, afghanistan, under cover of darkness, with extraordinary security measures. reporters traveling with the president were sworn to secrecy. the secret service is prepared for anything that could happen. it starts with getting in, u.s. planes landing in afghanistan perform a cork screw type landing making sharp banks and turns to avoid heat seeking missiles. colonel mark tillman, now retired, cold wolf blitzer about secretly taking president george w. bush to baghdad in 2003 while combat raged. >> the challenge wasn't so much to get him in there because we easily fooled everybody and got him in there. the challenge was once he was on the grouped and everybody knew he was there to get him back out again, so we worked very hard to make sure he had minimum time on the ground. >> reporter: any longer and terrorists might be able to set up an attack. and over the years, bagram, right where the president landed, has come under repeated rocket and mortatar attacks. the president aboarded a helicopter with apache gunships providing escort. even the heavily protected area where the president headed to meet with hamid karzai is not totally secure. just last month the taliban pulled off multiple attacks in the green zone where the presidential palace, nato headquarters and the u.s. embassy are located. the secret service works to make sure there are no attacks, only a handful of u.s. officials and top military commanders even knew the president was coming. less information, more security is the way the president's men make it happen. now the president of course is running for re-election, as commander in chief, so in this election year, as with all things white house, there is that bit of a political overtone to all of it, but still, we saw the pictures a short time ago, the troops were absolutely thrilled to see president obama in afghanistan. wolf, back to you. >> barbara, thank you very much. i want to bring john king in once in. you've been on secret dangerous presidential visits to a war zone. remind our viewer, what's it like? >> i was on the bush trip to baghdad, the first trip to baghdad after maliki became prime minister. i was called by dan bartlett over the weekend, called asked if he could she he see me for coffee. i left the white house beat which i covered for eight 1/2 years. we need you to keep this secret, tell one boss, if you can, keep this from your family, we're worried about security. show up at andrew's air force base. when you get close to baghdad everything must be turned off. they took things away from us, they don't want any electronic signal from the plane. you remember from your days covering the white house on air force one in all of the press cabins there's a television and it says time in washington, time and place of local, wherever you're going, and this other three times, all the clocks were turned off, all of the power they could turn off, any external lights turned off, once you get over the airbase you go down quickly, sometimes they cork screw, sometimes they drop the plane but they want to get down on the ground quickly and go down over the base. when we were on the ground told to be incredibly careful, couldn't call in a pool report to the other networks to disclose the president was there until the white house gave us approval. when we left it was the most interesting part. by then you're on the ground for the few hours, the enemy knows you're there and where you are. president bush decided as president obama did to bring air force one. the secret service and military say please tick a non-descript plane but wanted the symbolism of the flag on the back of that 747. when we left again they took all of our electronic devices and raised their voices, don't do anything. close the windowshades, no light, no electronic signals. they ref the engine and 747 took off like that, it's a pretty impressive 747, but i've never had gs before on a 747. we took off, it was a fun ride, once you get to safety the pilot tells you okay and they hand you back your tools. let's talk more about the strategic challenge for the united states, wolf, as the president signs this new agreement but a lot of the missing details what we need to find out. general james "spider" marks is with us. the president will bring moat troops home by 2014. now they have a partnership agreement, they need to negotiate a strategic forces agreement. what are your biggest concerns? how many troops do you need to continue the mission, and where might they be vulnerable or not so vulnerable? >> john, i think the thing to talk about is what are the functions that need to be performed. i couldn't get into numbers, it would be a pure guess but clearly in order to sustain an ongoing mission in support of afghanistan, as it continues to grow in its governance and legitimacy, united states has to have an aggressive intelligence sharing arrangement. we'll have forces on the ground that will access national intelligence collection capabilities, those include not only overhead, those are satellites but also ground-based assets that the cia will continue to run. there has to be strong inte