KABUL, Afghanistan -- President George W. Bush got a firsthand look Monday at the situation in the seven-year-old Afghanistan war, as his administration prepares to hand over a strategy overhaul to his successor including significantly increasing the U.S. troop presence.

Bush spoke to U.S. soldiers and Marines stationed in Afghanistan at a hangar on the tarmac at Bagram Air Base. The rally for over a thousand military personnel took place in the dark, cold pre-dawn hours -- it was about 5:30 a.m. local time when the president strode into the hangar to loud cheers.

"Afghanistan is a dramatically different country than it was eight years ago," he said. "We are making hopeful gains."

Bush's stop in Afghanistan came after a trip to Baghdad, where an Iraqi reporter threw his shoes at the president -- reminder of the abiding unpopularity of the American presence in the country.

After the rally at Bagram, Bush then took a helicopter ride to Afghan President Hamid Karzai's palace in Kabul -- the portion of the 40-hour journey that made his security detail the most nervous. At the compound, Bush and Karzai reviewed an honor guard dressed in long tunic coats of dusty blue and olive with yellow belts and epaulets.

Inside, Bush received a warm personal welcome from Karzai.

"I and the Afghan people are very proud and honored to the profoundest depth of our hearts to have President Bush with us here today," Karzai said as they sat side by side.

But his message had a little sting. He emphasized how Bush's visit came only after repeated requests, and said he wished that Bush had more time and that the Afghan people could see Bush in person.

During a joint news conference after the meeting, Bush told Karzai he had an excuse for rushing back to Washington: His wife demanded his return to attend a holiday reception at the White House later Monday.

"After all, I did sneak out of town in the dark of night," he joked.

Bush said he is amazed and pleased by how much Afghanistan has changed in seven years, although he realizes there is much more difficult work ahead.

"I told the president, 'You can count on the United States,"' Bush said. "'Just like you've been able to count on this administration, you'll be able to count on the next administration as well."'

Karzai said his country doesn't want to depend on international handouts forever, but stressed the help will still be needed for some time -- not before "we have taken from President Bush and the next administration billions and billions more dollars," he joked.

Bush's surprise stop in Afghanistan, his first in over 2 1/2 years and only the second of his presidency, was accompanied by extraordinary security. It came directly after a five-hour visit to Iraq that tried the nerves of Bush's Secret Service protectors.

During a press conference in Baghdad, an Iraqi reporter hurled two shoes at Bush. "This is your farewell kiss, you dog!" the protester shouted in Arabic.

Bush ducked both shoes as they whizzed past his head and landed with a thud against the wall behind him.

"It was a size 10," Bush joked later.

He was visiting the Iraqi capital just 37 days before he hands the war off to his successor, Barack Obama, who has pledged to end it. The president wanted to highlight a drop in violence and to celebrate a recent U.S.-Iraq security agreement, which calls for U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq by the end of 2011.

"The war is not over," Bush said, but "it is decisively on it's way to being won."

In recent months, the spotlight has begun to shift away from Iraq toward Afghanistan, where military violence is at its highest level since the invasion, with a growing U.S. and allied death toll, and when the political situation for Karzai, Afghanistan's fragile and weak U.S.-backed leader, is increasingly complicated.

American troops have been in Afghanistan since 2001, when the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States led America to invade with an international coalition and oust the hard-line Taliban regime that had supported Al Qaeda.

Since September, the Bush administration has been conducting a wide review of its war strategy in Afghanistan, a road map which is expected to recommend that further expanding the Afghan army is the best path to success and a U.S. withdrawal. The Bush White House intends the strategy overhaul not as something it would implement -- as its time left in office is too short -- but as a guide for the incoming Obama administration.

Obama has called Afghanistan an "urgent crisis," saying it's time to heed the call from U.S. commanders there for significantly more U.S. troops.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates preceded Bush in both Afghanistan and Iraq. In Afghanistan on Thursday, before meeting with Gen. David McKiernan, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces there, Gates said the U.S. military will pour thousands of additional troops into Afghanistan by next summer.

Commanders have called for up to 20,000 more U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and addressing the situation there is fast becoming the United States' leading military priority. The need is especially great in southern Afghanistan, long a stronghold of the Taliban and the place where recent spikes in violence have proven the insurgency capable of reasserting itself.

There are about 31,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan now. Increasing that number as commanders desire requires pulling troops from Iraq and shifting the nation's focus from that battle to the escalating one in Afghanistan.

Gates has said the increase in U.S. forces is especially important ahead of national elections scheduled for next fall.