The United States President Barack Obama announced late Wednesday he would withdraw around 33,000 occupation troops from Afghanistan by the summer of 2012.
The United States President Barack Obama announced late Wednesday he would withdraw around 33,000 occupation troops from Afghanistan by the summer of 2012.
In a 15-minute address to the nation at the White House, Obama said that the “tide of war is receding”.
“Over the last decade, we have spent a trillion dollars on war, at a time of rising debt and hard economic times,’’ he said, referring to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“We take comfort in knowing that the tide of war is receding’’.
Ten years of war in Afghanistan have cost the United States more than $444 billion and the lives of 1,633 American troops, according to icasualties.org. More than 900 other NATO soldiers have been killed.
Obama said he would pull out 10,000 troops by the end of this year and an additional 23,000 by next summer.
The US currently has about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan.
He added that the remaining troops, around 68,000, would leave at a "steady pace," saying that by 2014 the US would turn over security responsibility to Afghan forces.
Since he took office in January 2009, Obama has roughly tripled the size of the American force in Afghanistan, but in his speech, he argued that the mission - the longest war in American history - was coming to an end.
"We've inflicted serious losses on the Taliban and taken a number of its strongholds. Along with our surge, our allies also increased their commitments, which helped stabilize more of the country," he said.
"Afghan security forces have grown by over 100,000 troops, and in some provinces and municipalities, we have already begun to transition responsibility for security to the Afghan people."
The withdrawal of 10,000 troops by the end of this year had been expected, but Obama set a quicker timetable for the rest of the surge forces to come home than some of his top commanders had expected for.
Obama said this was possible because “successful counterterrorism” operations by the United States and Pakistan had “taken out more than half’’ of Al Qaeda’s leadership, including Osama bin Laden.
He also said that it is time to seek reconciliation with some elements of the Taliban, saying that a nascent peace process offered hope that most would stop fighting the Afghan government and renounce Al Qaeda.
