National Security

A Bar Chart Is Worth 1,000 Words

By Mark Thompson | @MarkThompson_DC | March 28, 2011 | +

Here you can see a breakdown of just the sorties that are devoted to air-to-ground missions, the protect-the-people missions. Again, the numbers at right are totals for the entire operation. From Friday to Sunday, there was an increase in strikes from 91 to 107, but the majority each day were flown by our partner-nation pilots. I know it seems as though I’m trying to hammer home a point here, and I guess I am. It’s simply this: U.S. military participation in this operation is, as we have said all along, changing to one primarily of support.

– Vice Adm. William Gortney, director of the U.S. Joint Staff, late Monday afternoon

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  • http://shortplaysaboutrealpeople.wordpress.com Michael Maiello

    What? So in each of those three days the US conducted nearly as many sorties as the entire rest of the coalition combined. And, the proportion increased, day by day, throughout the weekend. That does not scream “support role.”

  • kbanginmotown

    So, what do the charts look like when we break them down by country?
    .
    ********************…USA
    *************…………France
    *********……………..Italy
    ******………………..UK
    .
    A graph like this would make it look like we were leading the charge.
    .
    Oh, and BTW, last week, the breakdown looked much different…(link) http://www.defense.gov/news/d20110325slides.pdf

  • http://shortplaysaboutrealpeople.wordpress.com Michael Maiello

    Thanks for bringing clarity to this. I’ve noticed a recent 63% increase in the use of misleading charts and made up statistics around here.

  • libssd

    This is a very confusing chart. The bars show more coalition strikes than US, and I don’t know where the summary figures come from.
    .
    Blue bars (US strike sorties): 41+40+52 = 133
    Red bars (Coalition strike sorties): 50+48+55 = 153
    .
    The whole thing has been cleverly orchestrated by the three sisters (Clinton, Rice, Power) to provide cover to the US, through a broad UN resolution giving the illusion (or as the CIA used to say, “plausible deniability”) that this is not an American operation to get rid of Qaddafi, but rather a humanitarian coalition effort that is supported by the Arab League. That’s diplomacy; everybody can provide their own spin to serve their needs.
    .
    Will it work? Too soon to tell.

  • michaelfury
  • pintortwo

    Crowley linked to this AP article (link) in his “unique role” post re coalition involvement:
    .
    As by far the pre-eminent player in NATO, and a nation historically reluctant to put its forces under operational foreign command, the United States will not be taking a back seat in the campaign even as its profile diminishes for public consumption.
    .
    NATO partners are bringing more into the fight. But the same “unique capabilities” that made the U.S. the inevitable leader out of the gate will continue to be in demand. They include a range of attack aircraft, refueling tankers that can keep aircraft airborne for lengthy periods, surveillance aircraft that can detect when Libyans even try to get a plane airborne, and, as Obama said, planes loaded with electronic gear that can gather intelligence or jam enemy communications and radars.
    .
    The United States supplies 22 percent of NATO’s budget, almost as much as the next largest contributors – Britain and France – combined. A Canadian three-star general was selected to be in charge of all NATO operations in Libya. His boss, the commander of NATO’s Allied Joint Force Command Naples, is an American admiral, and the admiral’s boss is the supreme allied commander Europe, a post always held by an American.
    .
    Nuanced indeed.

  • pintortwo

    This is the same Vice Adm. William Gortney that claimed last week..
    .
    there has been no reduction in the number of American planes participating. In fact, (Gortney) said the Pentagon was considering bringing in side-firing AC-130 gunships, helicopters and armed drone aircraft that could challenge Libyan ground forces… -link

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