When did post-major-combat deaths surpase combat deaths?

[ochazuke]

I heard that the number of Americans killed in Iraq since May 1st, when pResident bush declared "mission accomplished" had exceeded the number killed up to May 1st.

I heard that on or about August 27th.

Now, I heard it again in the news a few days ago.

What's going on here?

[DUreader]

1. Enron off the books accounting. Hostile Deaths is a subsidiary

of Total Deaths .

Non Hostile Deaths Deaths code named Chewbackatcha is an off books

cayman islands based subsidiary of the War which does not have to be reported til next centuries quarter

[VolcanoJen]

2. I could've sworn I'd heard that before too, cmorea.

The only explanation I can think of is that we at DU tend to count all deaths, whereas US Central Command (and the media) tends to count combat deaths only. It's a parsing of words, basically, and it's horseshit any way you smell it.

Even commondreams.org is carrying the latter version, from Wednesday, Oct. 29:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1029-04.htm

BAGHDAD, Iraq - More U.S. soldiers have died in combat in Iraq since May 1, when President Bush declared an end to major combat operations, than died during main phase of the war, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.

The death toll is a milestone, graphically illustrating the extended character of a war that many Americans believed was nearly finished after just a few weeks of combat. With a stubborn insurgency that is becoming more sophisticated and deadly in its attacks, it's also a sobering reminder of the distance left to go in Iraq.

The 115th combat death occurred on Monday - 114 died prior to May 1 -during the wave of bombings in the Iraqi capital.

[jiacinto]

3. last week

nt

[DUreader]

4. why are you insulting the troops?

show some respect

[KeepItReal]

5. Here's a link to casulty counts. Not sure of accuracy.

http://lunaville.org/warcasualties/Summary.aspx

I never recalled hearing about soldiers who died in any previous conflict being segregated into these ludicrous categories. If a soldier is killed or wounded serving in Iraq, then he or she has been killed or wounded in action. Period. This before or after Bush & Co. did that carrier stunt timeline is begging the wrong question. ADD UP ALL THE CASULTIES OF THIS INVASION. Screw the timeline.

Soldiers that died and were wounded the day before Bush & Co.'s carrier declaration deserve the same respect and acknowledgement as those K.I.A. and W.I.A. the day of and the days after that dumb-assed PR stunt.

[ochazuke]

6. Article on accounting of war dead

I found this from the page you linked above. It was probably in late August that the number of all war dead surpassed the arbitrary pre-carrier-stunt figure, and then just recently that combat deaths surpassed that number.

http://www.mediainfo.com/editorandpublisher/headlines/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2013954

I would like to add that our media tend to underplay the wounded. "Wounded" sounds like no big deal to some people. One may think it's "only a flesh wound", but many are men who will never walk or have lost limbs.

Also underplayed in our media: the number of Iraqis who have died or been wounded. Obviously it's a harder thing to keep track of, but many of the thousands of Iraqis who have died are innocents.