--- title: 'Bringing Our Service Members Home: Reducing Troop Levels in Afghanistan and Iraq' url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bringing-service-members-home-timeline-2014/ description: A blue infographic plots U.S. troop levels as a falling white line from roughly 180,000 in January 2009 to zero at the end of 2016, with dated milestones… section: Collection --- [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) [![Bringing Our Service Members Home: Reducing Troop Levels in Afghanistan and Iraq](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bringing-service-members-home-timeline-2014.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bringing-service-members-home-timeline-2014.jpg) # Bringing Our Service Members Home: Reducing Troop Levels in Afghanistan and Iraq A blue infographic plots U.S. troop levels as a falling white line from roughly 180,000 in January 2009 to zero at the end of 2016, with dated milestones above it and a 'Promises Kept' panel of four checkmarked items below. The line after mid-2014 is a plan, not a count, and the labels after 2011 refer only to Afghanistan. ## Text on the object Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked ``` BRINGING OUR SERVICE MEMBERS HOME: REDUCING TROOP LEVELS IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ JANUARY 2009 Roughly 180,000 troops President Obama takes office. President Obama announces a plan to responsibly end the war in Iraq. At West Point, the President puts forth a new U.S. strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, including a commitment to begin the drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan in July of 2011. End of combat mission in Iraq. Bin Laden killed. JUNE 2011 Roughly 150,000 troops. 20 of al Qaeda's top 30 leaders have been killed, including Bin Laden. Over 100,000 Afghan security forces have been trained. The President announces that the United States will withdraw 10,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of the year. END OF 2011 Less than 100,000 troops. The President announces in his State of the Union that the U.S. would withdraw another 34,000 troops within a year. SUMMER OF 2012 Roughly 70,000 troops with an additional 23,000 troops drawback from Afghanistan. EARLY 2015 9,800 U.S. troops, with our NATO allies and other partners in Afghanistan. END OF 2015 Decrease troops in Afghanistan by roughly half. END OF 2016 Normal Embassy Office of Security Cooperation in Kabul. PROMISES KEPT END THE WAR IN IRAQ President Obama removed 100,000 troops from Iraq and ended the combat mission on schedule. REFOCUS ON AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN President Obama brought focus and necessary resources. STRIKE BLOWS AGAINST AL QAEDA LEADERSHIP On May 1, 2011, President Obama announced the United States had killed Osama bin Laden, leader of al Qaeda and a terrorist responsible for the murders of thousands of innocent people. STEADY TROOP DRAWDOWN SINCE JULY 2011 10,000 troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan by the end of 2011, 33,000 by the summer of 2012, and another 34,000 by early 2014. ``` [← 'A tyre burned, blazed, and Vova Putler - la-la-la!' Ukrainian Platform 'Sobor' billboard, Kyiv](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sobor-vova-putler-billboard-kyiv-2014/) [Russian Defence Ministry satellite image, MH17 briefing →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/mh17-buk-briefing-image-2014/) ## Using the same techniques - [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (Kingdom of England · 1070 · Transfer, Card stacking) - [Passional Christi und Antichristi: the emperor kisses the pope's foot (leaf 'Antichristus')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passional-christi-antichristi-emperor-kisses-pope-1521/) (Electoral Saxony · 1521 · Name-calling, Card stacking) - [The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street Boston on March 5th 1770 by a party of the 29th Regt.](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/revere-bloody-massacre-king-street-1770/) (Province of Massachusetts Bay · Mar 1770 · Name-calling, Card stacking). Content note: Hand-coloured engraving of bloodied dead and wounded colonists after soldiers fired on a crowd. - [The Virginia Argus, "Letter to Mazzei" and rebuttal, 16 September 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/virginia-argus-letter-to-mazzei-1800/) (United States · Sep 16, 1800 · Name-calling, Card stacking) - [The Examiner, No. 608, 22 August 1819, 'Disturbances at Manchester' (Peterloo)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/examiner-disturbances-at-manchester-1819/) (United Kingdom · Aug 22, 1819 · Card stacking) - [Punch, 'Laurels at Ningpo' column on the First Opium War, 1842](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/punch-laurels-at-ningpo-1842/) (United Kingdom · 1842 · Card stacking). Content note: Period satirical prose describing the killing of Chinese soldiers at Ningpo in graphic terms, using period terms such as 'pig-tail' for Chinese people. - [La paz según el Perú – La paz según los chilenos (Peace According to Peru, Peace According to the Chileans)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/la-paz-segun-el-peru-el-banquillo-1880/) (Peru · Jun 12, 1880 · Card stacking) - [New York Journal and Advertiser, front page, 17 February 1898 ($50,000 reward, Maine 'work of an enemy')](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ny-journal-maine-destroyed-enemy-1898/) (United States · Feb 17, 1898 · Card stacking)