President Obama announced last night that he would bring home 33,000 United States servicemembers from Afghanistan by the end of the summer of 2012. The president said 10,000 of those troops would leave Afghanistan by the end of 2011.
Michèle Flournoy, undersecretary of defense for policy, told lawmakers on Capitol Hill today the timing of the drawdown has not been rushed:
As I listened to President Obama's speech last night, I wondered what our Marines at Camp Pendleton had to say about it. Fortunately, KPBS reporter Alison St John was able to speak with Master Sgt. Mark Oliva of Camp Pendleton's I Marine Expeditionary Force. He told St John that his Marines listened very intently to the president's words:
Oliva told St John roughly 5,000 Camp Pendleton-based Marines are serving in Afghanistan, about half as many as were deployed there earlier this year.
To listen to Alison St John's entire radio report, click here.
