President Barack Obama delivers remarks regarding Afghanistan to the press in the Rose Garden of the White House, May 27, 2014.
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
This afternoon, in the White House Rose Garden, President Obama talked briefly about the United States' next steps in Afghanistan, and how "we will bring America's longest war to a responsible end."
Over the last several years, we’ve worked to transition security responsibilities to the Afghans. One year ago, Afghan forces assumed the lead for combat operations. Since then, they’ve continued to grow in size and in strength, while making huge sacrifices for their country. This transition has allowed us to steadily draw down our own forces — from a peak of 100,000 U.S. troops, to roughly 32,000 today.
The President announced today that 22,000 more troops will return home by the end of the year, ending the U.S. combat mission in December 2014.
"When I took office, we had nearly 180,000 troops in harm's way," President Obama said. "By the end of this year, we will have less than 10,000."
