President Barack Obama signaled the gradual close of the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan on Tuesday.<br /> <br />As few as 5,000 troops, he said, will remain in Afghanistan by the end of 2015.<br /> <br />SOUNDBITE: U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA SAYING:<br /> <br />"One year later, by the end of 2016, our military will draw down to a normal embassy presence in Kabul with a security assistance component just as we have done in Iraq."<br /> <br />For weeks, the administration has been quietly considering bringing U.S. troop presence well below the 10,000 mark, the minimum demanded by the U.S. military to train Afghan forces.<br /> <br />The final numbers -- 9,800 troops after this year, and roughly half of that by the end of 2015 -- emerged during Obama's meetings with military commanders at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan over the weekend.<br /> <br />SOUNDBITE: U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA SAYING:<br /> <br />"The bottom line is it's time to turn the page on more than a decade in which so much of our foreign policy was focused
