we will speak with sharif abdel kudos -- sharif abdel kouddous in cairo. all of that and more coming up. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president obama has announced u.s. occupation of afghanistan will continue until the end of 2016. on tuesday, obama said the u.s. will maintain almost 10,000 troops in afghanistan after its formal comment mission concludes at the end of this year. the u.s. will eventually withdraw troops until only a small residual force remains after 2016. >> at the beginning of 2015, we will have approximately 9800 u.s. servicemembers in different parts of the country. together with our nato allies and other partners. by the end of 2015, we will have reduced that presence by roughly half, and will have consolidated our troops in kabul and on bagram airfield. one year later, at the end of 2016, our military will draw down to a normal embassy presence in kabul, with the security assistance component test as we have done in iraq. >> by the time he was fully withdrawals, the war will have

and sharif abdel kouddous is with us, independent journalist, democracy now!correspondent, usually based in cairo but has been reporting for "the washington post" from tripoli for the past 10 days. his latest piece is headlined, "in libya, fears of all-out war as islamist militias allied with parliament deploy in capital." to democracyu both now! mary fitzgerald, described the situation in tripoli, especially for an audience that is not familiar with lidia right now at all, except perhaps the benghazi controversy in washington, d.c. >> the mood in tripoli right now is extremely tense, with most of the and describing the current situation as the most serious juncture that libya has found itself insist the ousting of muammar gaddafi in 2011. there's a real sense of apprehension here. there is also a sense of people choosing sides. libya has suffered from increasing polarization in recent months. and that seems to be coming to some kind of crescendo. several different dynamics that have been rolling in recent months, peer to be -- appear to be coming to a head wi