34,000 US troops to leave Afghanistan within a year

The decision by President Barack Obama to move out of Afghanistan half of 66,000 American troops by the end of February 2014 is a “careful balancing of political interests and military requirements,” the New York Times said. The decision, which Obama highlights in his State of the Union address, will give military commanders in Afghanistan some flexibility in setting the pace of troop reductions, and will allow them to keep a substantial force until after the next fighting season, which ends in October. While it satisfies the top commander in Afghanistan who had just left his post, it also rebuffs Vice President Joseph Biden who wants a faster pullout. By 2014, the security mission is supposed to shift entirely to the Afghans. Even then, the US is still in the early stage of negotiating a security agreement over retaining a post-2014 presence, which is expected to get progressively smaller.

Read the full story on the New York Times.

The full speech of US President Obama is on Rappler.