Obama Address: U.S. Mission in Afghanistan To Shift

President Barack Obama says 10,000 troops will come home from Afghanistan by the end of this year as the U.S. mission shifts from combat to support after nearly 10 years of war.

The president said a total of 33,000 troops would be withdrawn by next summer, as he announced what he called “the beginning but not the end of our effort to wind down this war.”

Obama spoke from the White House East Room on Wednesday night to mark a milestone in a war he inherited and expanded with a surge of troops earlier in his administration. He says conditions are right now to start drawing it to a close.

After the 33,000 troops are gone, about 70,000 will remain until the transition is complete in 2014.

Fort Bliss wife Tara Archuleta told ABC-7 she hopes the president’s announcement means her husband will not see his 5th deployment.

“It’s hard, each deployment,” she said. “I miss having him by my side and having him watch his kids grow up.”

A Fort Bliss spokesman said the post currently has fewer than 1,000 service members in Afghanistan.

The spokesman added that two brigades of roughly 3,800 troops each will still deploy to Afghanistan and Iraq before the end of the year.