“Huge challenges remain. This is the beginning — but not the end of our effort to wind down this war,” Obama said. “America, it is time to focus on nation building at home.”

Obama said that 10,000 troops will be transferred out of Afghanistan by the end of this year and another 23,000 will come home no later than September 2012. That’s the full 33,000 deployed as part of the “surge” that Obama ordered in 2009.

Story: Reactions to Obama plan: Right vs. risky
“The tide of war is receding,” he said to war-weary Americans.