border and established safe haven in pakistan. america spent nearly eight years fighting a different war in iraq. al qaeda's extremist allies have waged a brutal insurgency. over the last three years the tide has turned. we broke the taliban's momentum. we built strong of began security forces. we devastated their leadership talking out 20 of their top 30 leaders. one year ago from based here in afghanistan, our troops launched the operation that killed osama bin laden. the goal that i set to defeat al qaeda and deny a chance to rebuild is now within our reach. >> the president addressed the specifics of the troop draw down in afghanistan. >> last year we removed 10,000 u.s. troops from afghanistan. another 23,000 will leave by the end of the summer. after that, reductions will continue at a steady pace with more and more of our troops coming home. as our coalition agreed, by the end of 2014, the afghans will be responsible for the security of