US President Obama's announcement caps weeks of speculation about the future of US involvement in Afghanistan. The president faces a host of contradictory pressures.
He's trying to rein in government spending on the war and halt American casualties without endangering the gains his military commanders say they have made across southern Afghanistan. The decision is unlikely to sit well with the Pentagon's top brass. Outgoing Defense Secretary Robert Gates has warned against a hasty departure.
He says removing too many troops before the US can prove it has turned a corner would be "premature." But some in Congress are impatient with a war that now costs more than 110 billion dollars a year. They've demanded a larger initial drawdown.