WASHINGTON, Feb 12, (Agencies): US President Barack Obama was to announce in his State of the Union address Tuesday that he will pull 34,000 US troops home from Afghanistan in the next year, a source familiar with his speech said.

The move will effectively halve the size of the current 66,000 strong US force in Afghanistan, ahead of a final withdrawal of most foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.

The source, speaking on condition of anonymity so as not to preempt Obama’s remarks, said the president would undertake to make the withdrawals around the time of his next State of the Union speech next year.

There were no immediate details of how quickly the drawdown would take place and the timetable will impact the number of troops NATO will have in place to fight the Taleban after the spring thaw in Afghanistan.

Debate is also taking place within the administration on the size of a residual force, to train Afghan soldiers and to conduct anti-terror missions, that will remain behind after the formal withdrawal.
Last month, US officials suggested it was theoretically possible that Washington would leave no troops in the country, though some observers saw that move as a negotiating tactic with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in town.

Obama has made ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan the centerpiece of his presidency, and often declares a long decade or more of American war is almost over.

Obama will be looking across a vast partisan divide Tuesday night as he reports to Congress and the nation with his annual State of the Union speech, which is closely monitored as the blueprint for his goals for the year. They include job creation and a push for the ambitious progressive plans he outlined in his second inaugural address three weeks ago.

Obama hopes he can encourage lawmakers to join him in reforming laws on gun ownership and immigration and boosting taxes to raise government spending power. The president’s priorities also include easing back on spending cuts and addressing climate change.

He’ll also address the news from North Korea, which said it successfully detonated a nuclear device Tuesday in defiance of UN warnings. The White House said the president would make the case that the nuclear program had only further isolated the impoverished nation.

Aware of the partisan gridlock gripping Washington, Obama is banking on his popularity and the political capital from his convincing re-election in November as he calls on Americans to join him in his vision for what he calls a fairer country with greater opportunity for all.

With Republicans in control of the House of Representatives and exerting influence in the Democratic-controlled Senate, Obama plans immediately afterward to make a two-day, three-state foray to take his message directly to the American people. Congress fought the president to a near standstill on virtually every White House initiative during his first term — though he succeeded in overhauling the health care system.

In his second term, Obama has decided that he may stand a better chance of moving his agenda through Congress by drawing support from outside the capital rather than from within.
Massive federal spending cuts that will hit the US economy on March 1 if a compromise isn’t hammered out with Congress will surely color Obama’s speech like nothing else. Some economists predict those cuts could push the United States back into recession even before it has fully recovered from the Great Recession — the most serious economic downturn in more than 70 years.
The cuts will slice deeply into spending for the Pentagon and a range of social programs. Obama says he wants “a balanced approach” to tackling the spiraling deficit with a mix of increased tax revenue and cuts in spending.

The opposition declares it will not give ground on raising taxes.
Meanwhile, North Korea’s nuclear blast thrust President Barack Obama into an alarming new overseas crisis Tuesday, at the moment he hoped to use his annual State of the Union address to focus on jobs.
With a characteristic sense of timing, Pyongyang set off its underground nuclear test as Obama polished a new call for action at home to tackle high unemployment and economic headwinds threatening the fragile recovery.

Obama will strike the populist message that helped him defy tough times to win re-election in an address largely aimed at a domestic audience — a down payment from the stock of political capital he piled up in November.
North Korea’s test meanwhile presents Obama with a foreign policy headache in Asia, as Pyongyang shrugs off sanctions which have kept it in deep isolation to stride closer to full membership of the nuclear club.
Obama had already been under fire from political opponents over another nuclear imbroglio, with Iran, as he argued for more time for punishing sanctions to convince the Islamic Republic to halt its atomic development.
Ironically, Obama had been expected to renew his core commitment to seek cuts in global nuclear weapons stocks, which has been at the core of his foreign policy, during his speech on Tuesday.
In a late-night statement, Obama condemned the test as a “highly provocative act” that warrants “swift and credible action,” as the UN Security Council planned a 9:00 am (1400 GMT) emergency session.
North Korea’s action once again revealed Pyongyang’s penchant for using big events, like major Obama speeches or a current transfer of political power in South Korea, to issue a flamboyant demand for attention.
It also came as Obama nominees Chuck Hagel and John Brennan await confirmation votes to be the next chiefs of the Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency, after encountering opposition from Republicans.
The president will still likely use the bulk of the State of the Union speech to lay out a governing program to match the soaring progressive vision of his inaugural address last month, drilling down on the haunting jobs crisis.
“The President has always viewed the two speeches, the inaugural address and the State of the Union, as two acts in the same play,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said, before word came of the North Korean nuclear test.
“The core emphasis that he has always placed in these big speeches remains the same and will remain the same, which is the need to make the economy work for the middle class.”
Obama will refresh some plans he has already framed for creating jobs, including investment in America’s ageing infrastructure — which never made it past Congress — and offer some new ideas.
But the speech will take place in the shadow of Obama’s row with Republicans over huge budget cuts due to hit in March 1, which could hammer the fragile economy.