President Obama announced plans to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan to 9,800 after 2014, with designs on pulling out of the 12-year military conflict completely by the end of 2016. A small force will be left to defend the American embassy in Kabul and help with other state security matters.

“Americans have learned that it’s harder to end wars than it is to begin them,” President Obama told the press in the Rose Garden earlier today. “Yet this is how wars end in the 21st century.”

But the decision to rapidly reduce the number of combat troops in just two years has raised concern with intelligence officials, with one source telling the Daily Beast that 9,800 troops is simply "not enough to deny al Qaeda sanctuary in Afghanistan."

“As a result, they will come back. We have decided as a political leadership that we can live with this.”

Another senior official told the New York Times that the residual force would be filled with "trainers and Special Operations forces to fight remaining Qaeda loyalists." But the President reaffirmed his administration's commitment to end combat operations by the end of this year.

You can read more at the New York Times and Politico.

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