Grim Milestone Watch

The AP has been salivating over this number for weeks:

US Death Toll in Iraq War Hits 4,000

And the depressing lede:

BAGHDAD (AP) — A roadside bomb killed four U.S. soldiers in Baghdad on Sunday, the military said, pushing the overall American death toll in the five-year war to at least 4,000. The grim milestone came on a day when at least 61 people were killed across the country.

Rockets and mortars pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone, underscoring the fragile security situation and the resilience of both Sunni and Shiite extremist groups despite an overall lull in violence.

The soldiers with Multi-National Division — Baghdad were on a patrol when their vehicle was struck at about 10 p.m. in southern Baghdad, the military said. Another soldier was wounded in the attack.

The thing about the AP death toll—it isn’t a total of American soldiers killed in action.

The 4,000 figure is according to an Associated Press count that includes eight civilians who worked for the Department of Defense.

Actually, that’s not quite true. The AP also counts deaths caused by accidents. The number of deaths caused by hostile fire is lower than the Grim Milestone that the AP likes to keep in the news on a daily basis:

As of January 10, 2008 3,431 of the 4,228 total coalition military deaths were by hostile fire. 3,201 of the 3,921 total U.S. deaths were by hostile fire.

As usual, the media are sexing up the figures to make things look worse than they are. Eighteen percent of the AP figures are not KIA statistics, and the AP also inflates their figures by adding civilians to the death toll.

I’m not saying all those people didn’t die. I’m not saying they didn’t die in Iraq. But I am saying it’s deceptive to imply that 4,000 Americans were killed in Iraq by the enemy, when that is clearly not the case.