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Oct. 31, 2018 / 4:42 PM GMT
By Nigel Chiwaya and Jiachuan Wu
President Donald Trump followed through on his long-standing threat to use the U.S. military to slow illegal border crossings this week when the Pentagon announced plans to send troops to the U.S.-Mexico border.
The deployment, dubbed “Operation Faithful Patriot,” will send 5,200 additional troops to the border by Nov. 2. These troops join the 2,000 already stationed there.
Once stationed, the 7,200 troops at the border will equal the number in Iraq and Syria combined.
Here’s how the operation compares to other U.S. military deployments around the world: