A Grim Milestone...yet again



Yes, unfortunately it as come time for the media to mark yet another 'grim milestone'. Here is MSNBC on today's milestone:

"American deaths since the invasion of Iraq have reached 2,500, marking a grim milestone...."

Lost in all the reporting is the fact that the number of 2500 is fairly disingenuous.

Yes, it is the sad truth that 2500 service members have died while assigned to Operation Iraqi Freedom. But as I have written previously, a good number of those deaths are the result of non-hostile action.

If one looks only at those deaths that are the result of "hostile fire", in other words "acts of war", the real number of deaths only totals 1976. The leading cause being IED attack at 844. Even within the Hostile designation there are some listings that are dubious, such as "fall from helicopter" and "drowning", but they total less than 10.

Below is a chart of all 1976 deaths listed as from hostile causes since the start of the invasion:


As with my previous posts, these numbers are from icasualties.org.

I would really love for the media to do a little research before they definitively pronounce that "2500 troops have died in Iraq"

Posted: Thu - June 15, 2006 at 11:00 PM          

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