Bob Slattery's Khundu Civilian Casualty Estimate (Up to 5,000)

Bob Slattery delivers this verbal estimate during an Oval Office briefing: civilian deaths in Khundu could reach 5,000, pulled from the Archbishop's clerical network as the best available intel outside Bitanga where U.S. sources fail. President Bartlet locks eyes on the figure; Charlie, Jack Reese, and Nancy stand present. Slattery's words land with blunt force, shifting crisis talk from abstract to numeric urgency.

1 appearances

Purpose

Quantify projected civilian deaths in the Khundu conflict to brief national security leaders

Significance

The 5,000 toll crystallizes humanitarian stakes, spurring Bartlet to order a separate Pentagon 'forced-depletion' model of U.S. casualties via Jack Reese while dodging the prickly Secretary of Defense ahead of the inaugural.

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

1 moments

S4E14 · Inauguration Part I

Ordering the Forced-Depletion Estimate for Khundu

Bob Slattery's casualty estimate (verbalized as 'Could be as many as 5,000') functions as the evidentiary trigger for Bartlet's order; though spoken, it operates like an objectified datum that justifies urgent planning and moral pressure.

Before: Unstated and unquantified; intelligence gaps prevented a reliable figure.

After: Converted into a working premise for ordering a forced-depletion analysis and for shaping immediate White House decisions.

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