(CNN) - President Barack Obama will deliver a highly anticipated speech on the U.S. troop drawdown in Afghanistan at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday. He is expected to announce that 30,000 U.S. "surge" forces will be fully withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2012, an administration official said.
Obama has been mulling how many troops should be withdrawn this summer and by the end of the year. The President is expected to stress the importance of preserving flexibility in force levels on the ground so commanders can adjust as conditions warrant, the official said.
Though many critics have said it's long past time to get out of Afghanistan, others say it's too soon to leave. This morning on American Morning, CNN's Barbara Starr and fmr. National Security Council Member Brett McGurk preview President Obama's Afghanistan speech and examine the pros and cons of leaving the country.