As Mr. Schmader wrote in The Morning News this morning, Obama is sending 30,000 troops to Afghanistan over the next six months, with some expected to land as early as Christmas. You can read about that at the New York Times.

However, it looks like he's also establishing a deadline of 3 years for troops in Afghanistan.

He will tell the American people that U.S. troops will start leaving Afghanistan "well before" the end of his first term, with the aim of ending the main U.S. military mission there, one official said. However, Obama will not lay out precisely when he believes the war will end, the official said.

The official speech comes tonight. It will be interesting to see how he sells this to the American people.