Obama declares 'turning point' for US military
FORT DIX - US President Barack Obama on Monday saluted troops returning from Afghanistan and declared the United States is moving past the time for large deployments aimed at nation building, marking what he called a "turning point" for the US military.
Obama noted that nearly 180,000 troops were deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan when he took office, and that number will be down to less than 15,000 at the end of the month.
"The time of deploying large ground forces with big military footprints to engage in nation building overseas, that's coming to an end," the commander in chief said in a speech to 3,000 at New Jersey's Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, a launching point for deployments to Afghanistan.
"Going forward our military will be leaner," Obama said. "But as your commander in chief, I'm going to make sure we keep you ready for the range of missions that we ask of you. We are going to keep you the best trained, the best led, the best equipped military in the history of the world because the world will still be calling."
