(Newser) – Wrapping up his 6-hour surprise visit to Afghanistan with a speech before a crowd of service members, President Obama said today, "There's no visit that I considered more important than this visit that I'm making right now." After spending the early part of his overnight trip pressing Hamid Karzai to improve civilian efforts to keep order, Obama got a warmer welcome from a cheering crowd audience at Bagram air base.

"We did not choose this war," said Obama, on his second visit to Afghanistan and first since taking office. "This was not an act of America wanting to expand its influence, of us wanting to meddle in somebody else's business. We were attacked viciously on 9/11, when thousands of our fellow countrymen and women were killed."

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