On Tuesday, President Obama announced his plan to keep 9,800 U.S. troops in Afghanistan by 2015, but flubbed the announcement by first saying “98,000.”
“Today, I want to be clear about how the United States is prepared to advance those missions,” Obama said Tuesday afternoon. “At the beginning of 2015, we will have approximately 98,000 U.S. — let me start that over, just because I want to make sure we don’t get this written wrong. At the beginning of 2015, we will have approximately 9,800 U.S. service members in different parts of the country, together with our NATO allies and other partners.”
Obama continued: “By the end of 2015, we will have reduced that presence by roughly half, and we will have consolidated our troops in Kabul and on Bagram Airfield. One year later, by the end of 2016, our military will draw down to a normal embassy presence in Kabul, with a security assistance component, just as we’ve done in Iraq.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Obama pushed the importance of math at the annual White House Science Fair.