Ten thousand US troops will leave Afghanistan this year and another 23,000 will go home by the end of 2012.

That is according to the plan outlined by US President Barack Obama, after ten years of war and billions of dollars spent on the fight with the Taliban.

Some in the military are warning hard-won gains will be lost, however, the president says that the "tide of war is receding" and, in an acknowledgment of domestic economic strains, that "it is time to focus on nation-building here at home".

Al Jazeera's Patty Culhane reports from Washington.