2. The president is also expected to promote his strategy to win the war in Afghanistan — a goal that has eluded his predecessors since 2001.

On our podcast “The Daily,” our Kabul correspondent discusses the connection between the recent wave of violence there and the U.S. government’s cutoff of security aid to Pakistan.

And a veteran journalist argues in an Op-Ed essay that American military aims in Afghanistan are riddled with contradictions (and illusions) that Pakistan’s spy agency exploits.