Think Progress: Missing Data Points on White House's Troop Level Charts [View All]

Filling In The Missing Data Points On The White House’s Afghanistan/Iraq Troop Level Charts

By Matthew Yglesias posted from ThinkProgress Yglesias on Jun 24, 2011 at 9:50 am

Earlier this week, ThinkProgress produced a graph illustrating the
fact that Obama’s “withdrawal” plan from Afghanistan will leave more troops
there than were present at the start of his administration.

Seemingly in response, Ben Rhodes from the National Security Council posted a counter-chart on the White House
blog depicting combined troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan as steadily declining since
the administration took office.

Unfortunately, in drawing their trend line the White House’s
graphics team actually left off several salient data points, creating the illusion of steady
decline where there has in fact been a surge followed by an un-surge.

A corrected chart:




Aside from the additional data points, the key thing to note here is that the White House creates the appearance
of a steep drawdown by projecting into the future. As noted in my amended version of the chart, there are
actually substantial questions as to whether withdrawal from Iraq will proceed as quickly or completely as
official projections indicate. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has stated that Iraq is likely to “ask the
United States to maintain a presence in that country beyond the end of this year, when American troops are
currently scheduled to leave.” Panetta has further said that “he would support leaving some U.S. troops in
Iraq if the Baghdad government makes a formal request to keep the forces in the country after the deadline
for a pullout.”

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