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(This post was last updated at 3:00 p.m. ET.)

President Obama announced on Tuesday a plan to leave a residual force of 9,800 service members in Afghanistan beyond 2014. By 2016, most troops will be out of the country.

"It's time to turn the page on more than a decade in which so much of our foreign policy was focused on... wars in Afghanistan and Iraq," Obama said in the White House Rose Garden.

Obama said that combat will end in America's longest-running war by the end of this year. He said after that, the American mission will be focused on two narrow objectives: training Afghan forces and supporting operations against the remnants of al-Qaida.

All of this, Obama said, will only be possible if the Afghan government signs a bilateral security agreement.


That agreement has been elusive for the United States, because Afghan President Hamid Karzai has reneged several times. Just this February, Obama had asked the Pentagon to draw up plans 

to have all U.S. forces out of Afghanistan by the end of the year

During a speech at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan

 over the weekend, Obama said he was hopeful a new president in Afghanistan would lead to a signed security agreement.
"With that bilateral security agreement, assuming it is signed, we can plan for a limited military presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014," 

. "Because after all the sacrifices we've made, we want to preserve the gains that you have helped to win. And we're going to make sure that Afghanistan can never again, ever, be used again to launch an attack against our country."
That number of residual forces — 9,800 — is more in line with what military officials had asked for. Back in January, Vice President Joe Biden was advocating for a smaller force in the range of 2,000 to 3,000 troops. 

 that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel supported military recommendations of a residual force of more than 9,000.


By the end of 2015, that number would be reduced by half, consolidating U.S. troops in Kabul and on Bagram Airfield. By the end of 2016, the only service members left in Afghanistan will serve as a security assistance force for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

Obama said that this is the way modern wars come to an end.

"Afghanistan will not be a perfect place," Obama said. "And it is not America's responsibility to make it one."

Update at 5:27 p.m. ET. 'A Monumental Mistake': 


Republican Sens. John McCain, from Arizona, Lindsey Graham, of South Caroline, and Kelly Ayotte, of New Hampshire, 

issued a joint statement criticizing President Obama's decision

The number is in line with what military officials had asked for. The United States will end America's longest-running war in 2014 and expects most of the residual force out of the country by 2016.

Obama plans to leave 9,800 troops in Afghanistan past 2014

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