The White House's chart of troop levels is wildly misleading

The White House's chart of troop levels is wildly misleading

Earlier this week, the White House released this chart of troop levels in Afghanistan and Iraq during the Obama administration:

Combining the two is strange, isn't it? Consider what happens when you break out Afghanistan alone, as Reuters did awhile back:

That's telling, especially given that the Afghan troop increase was a cornerstone of President Obama's foreign policy back in 2009. Seems like a tacit admission that the surge was not, in fact, a very good idea.

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Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper is a national correspondent at TheWeek.com. His work has appeared in the Washington Monthly, The New Republic, and the Washington Post.