"You have essentially given me one option"

In the Situation Room on the afternoon of Nov. 11, 2009, the military gave President Obama a complex chart of recommended deployments to Afghanistan. Troop levels would increase and not return to the then-current level of 68,000 until 2016. The president called the option "unacceptable." Three days later, he received this revised chart (below right):

SOURCES: U.S. Central Command, the Joint Staff (historical troop levels); CHART IMAGE: Obtained by Bob Woodward | The Washington Post - September 27, 2010