The crawl line on CNN had that

[shraby]

1 more soldier was killed bringing the total to 629. What is going on? The total is over 800.

[fizzana]

1. They sometimes break it down into

'death by hostile fire" and "all deaths" which includes accidents, friendly fire etc. Hostile deaths are in the 650 range.

[goddess40]

11. If they make it back to US before they die they don't count...

...no matter how they got injuried.
They have many ways not to count deaths.
How about the flip way they report injuries, like there little boo-boos that will heal. We don't get any numbers on what type of injuries these soldiers are receiving and how many will really recover.

[Liberal Veteran]

2. Non-combat vs. combat casualities...

It's Enron type reporting.

[still_one]

3. They have changed the methodology

just like the way they calculate the number of unemployed. When the figures do not look good, they change the rules

Lying scumbags!!!

[cjbuchanan]

4. Normally when they do this, they are talking about "Killed Since...

Whistle Ass Declared An End To Major Combat Operations."

Yet another way they hide the true numbers.

[AntiCoup2K4]

5. They're probably trying to delay the day that the death toll reaches 1000

When casualties reach 4 digit numbers, it might actually flip off the denial switch in some people's minds. And unfortunately, it's likely to happen before November. So look for the media whores to spin the numbers lower as long as they can get away with it.

[clonebot]

6. media bias

its wierd how they will intentionally make the death toll seem smaller through hostile fire casualties v.s. non hostile - but at the same time they never report on positive humanitarian acts that are being performed in spite of all the conflict (i.e. building schools, feeding people, innoculation, etc..) .. its a bit frustrating since i dislike the bush administration but see the lack of positive news reporting as fodder for conservatives to complain about. its sad that whether a news outlet is "liberal" or "conservative" its still sensationalized and is only out to get ratings - neither the nyt or fox news is going to report on the marines painting a bunch of elementary schools, because we are naturally drawn and interested in the bad news.

[bossfish]

7. I'll take a little of that....

building schools, feeding people, innoculation, etc..)

here in the good old U S of A.

[clonebot]

8. thats for sure

they are doing it in iraq but not reporting on it. over here its just not happening at all ;)

[Skittles]

10. I don't give a flying f*** about thei "humanitarian acts"

this is a bit difficult to pull off on a country we bombed and invaded FOR NO GOOD REASON.

[necso]

9. They have all kinds of ways of hiding the real total.

The lowest number is "combat deaths, in the area of operations" (or something like that). This way they can hide the deaths of those killed, for instance, when they drive off of the road while being shot at and those unlucky souls who die after transport out of Iraq.

I imagine that the actual total of war related deaths is over 1000 by now.

The real story is the huge number of medical evacuations, which has been at a very high ratio to deaths and bespeaks the very bad conditions (physical and emotional) facing our soldiers.

Time to bring them home --- they have suffered enough for this fantasy. The entire nation has suffered enough for this fantasy.