Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, 157 troops have been killed in combat. 42 since May 1st, the official end of major combat operations. The latter is an average of 1 death every two days.

I found an interesting chart here that puts this "carnage" in perspective.

In 2002, about 1,000 service personnel died for one non-combat reason or another. In fact, it looks like between 1,000 and 2,000 service personnel die each year in non-combat situations. This is about 3 to 5 people a day.

Each death is unfortunate, but some people try to make our casualty rate in Iraq sound like the trenches in WWI. Either that, or post every single military death, in Iraq or out, if you want to be consistent.