Obama Details Troop Withdrawal from Afghanistan

President Obama detailed his plans for withdrawing troops out of Afghanistan in a White House address Wednesday night. "The tide of war is receding," he said.

The president's speech presented a timetable for withdrawal, which Obama previously announced he would begin in July. The president announced that 10,000 troops will return home by the end of the year and 33,000 by next summer. There are currently about 100,000 troops in Afghanistan, which includes the 20,000 additional troops Obama ordered in December 2009 as part of the surge strategy.

On Thursday, President Obama travels to upstate New York to visit Fort Drum, whose 10th Mountain Division currently has about 11,000 soldiers currently deployed in Afghanistan.

Fort Drum soldiers still make up a large share of those troop in Afghanistan—three Fort Drum brigades (about 5,000 soldiers) have deployed there in the last year and a half, and another brigade will likely deploy from there this November. They have also taken their share of casualties. 14 Fort Drum soldiers have died in Afghanistan in this year, including three this month.

On the day of Obama's visit, flags will be flown at half-staff on state buildings across New York in honor of Brian Backus, a Fort Drum soldier who died in Afghanistan on Saturday. Backus was an army medic who was wounded when insurgents attacked his Kandahar unit with small arms fire. A Michigan native, Backus is survived his parents, a brother, and a son. He was 21 years old.