The US military will spend the next year walking a fine line between the ongoing mission in Afghanistan and the need to meet President Obama's December 2014 deadline for withdrawing US combat forces from theater. As a means of meeting that goal, Obama announced during his State of the Union address plans to withdraw 34,000 troops from Afghanistan by Jan. 31,2014, giving the US military roughly one year to cut its footprint essentially in half. That's no easy task after more than a decade of war. If you look past the bunkers and T- walls intended to protect personnel from incoming rocket attacks, Afghanistan's main bases are a little piece of home plopped in the middle of the desert. Kandahar's famed boardwalk has everything from a TGI Friday's restaurant to souvenir shops that sell Afghan rugs, scarves, and even glass enclosed camel spider paperweights for the truly brave. The unique recreation area wraps around a jogging track, soccer field, and a Canadian-built roller rink.
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