U.S. soldiers get in to a U.S. military plane, as they leave Afghanistan, at the U.S. base in Bagram, north of Kabul, Afghanistan. Musadeq Sadeq/AP
With Obama's Plan, 32,000 Troops Would Remain in Afghanistan in 2014
President Obama will announce his timetable during his State of the Union speech.
During his State of the Union speech tonight, President Obama will reportedly announce an ambitious timetable for withdrawing the U.S. military from Afghanistan, where approximately 66,000 troops are currently deployed. According to Jake Tapper, who broke the news on CNN this morning (since confirmed by White House reporters at a pre-SOTU briefing with officials), the President will call home 34,000 troops — more than half — by the beginning of 2014. That'll leave 32,000 troops in Afghanistan, a number likely to decrease even more throughout 2014, according to the Obama administration's plan to wind down the bulk of the war in Afghanistan.