Seeking to draw a contrast between former President Donald Trump’s foreign policy record and that of President Joe Biden, social media users have circulated posts citing incorrect figures on United States military deaths in the Middle East.
“Under Trump a total of 512 service member died in Afghanistan and Iraq,” the posts claim. “Under Biden, only 20.”
The false claim first appeared on X, and was picked up by users of several other platforms, including Occupy Democrats, a Facebook account with 10 million followers.
This claim is false. Neither figure represents the number of U.S. service members killed in military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq under the Trump and Biden administrations. It drastically inflates the number of deaths that happened under the Trump administration, and slightly underreports the number of deaths under the Biden administration.
Under those two most recent White House administrations, U.S. service members killed in Afghanistan or Iraq fell within three distinct military operations: Operation Freedom’s Sentinel and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, and Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq. Both Afghanistan missions ceased combat operations by the end of 2015, while Operation Inherent Resolve was launched in 2014 to combat ISIS and transitioned to a non-combat mission in December 2021.
The U.S., however, maintained a presence in both countries after the conclusion of combat operations and the Department of Defense’s Casualty Analysis System continued to count military deaths in those regions under those missions.
The Defense Department records U.S. military personnel deaths into two distinct categories: hostile and non-hostile deaths. Hostile deaths are categorized by service members killed in combat action or caused by a hostile enemy force. Non-hostile deaths include all other deaths, such as those caused by accidents and combat training.
Even counting deaths attributed to those operations that took place outside of Iraq, in nations such as Qatar and Syria, the total doesn’t come close to the number suggested in the social media posts. During the Trump administration, a total of 131 U.S. service members were killed in operations based in Afghanistan and Iraq, while 32 U.S. service members died in those operations during the Biden administration. One other non-hostile death was recorded as occurring on January 20, 2021—the day Biden was inaugurated.
Of the 131 soldiers killed during Trump’s administration, the Pentagon recorded 57 of those deaths as hostile. Meanwhile, 16 of the 33 deaths recorded under the Biden administration were hostile deaths.
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