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Last Updated on February 13, 2013.

President Barack Obama is expected to announce his intention to drawdown 34,000 of the 66,000 troops currently serving in Afghanistan by February 2014 in tonight’s State of the Union speech. “While it is welcome news any time our men and women in uniform are coming home, the President’s announcement is unfortunately too small and too slow,” said Stephen Miles, Coalition Coordinator at Win Without War. “The announcement of a drawdown may be a step in the right direction but it is time the President listened to the American people who overwhelmingly want our troops home now.”

The U.S. war in Afghanistan is now in its twelfth year and is the longest war in American history. The President’s announced timeline would leave nearly all of the 66,000 troops currently fighting in Afghanistan as the war enters its thirteenth year and 32,000 as it enters its fourteenth. The Win Without War coalition is committed to a full drawdown, as quickly as possible, of all American troops from Afghanistan.

“The only thing that will change in Afghanistan during the next 12 months is that more American troops will be wounded and killed,” added Miles. “At a time when our nation is grappling with significant budgetary constraints, it makes no sense to continue spending tens of billions of dollars, and more importantly sending Americans to die, in a war that simply has no military solution.”

 

February 13, 2013