If you go by Donald's posts, as far as anyone knows our military people are simply walking along and suddenly somebody shoots them out of nowhere. Or maybe they just spontaneously combust.

No longer are accidental deaths factored out. The media ran this up in a trial balloon some months back, found out nobody complained, and bingo. The guy who rolls his Jeep is right up there with someone blown up by a bomb. About 500 people a year in the military die in accidents, war or no war. At present, 238 of those killed in Iraq fall into this category.

The circumstances are factored out. Were the deaths part of a military success? A military failure? Random attack? It makes a difference, if your mind is operating in more than one dimension.

The fact that five Marines died in an attack where over 300 enemy were killed, and an uprising successfully quelled, is important. Simply adding five more to the tally marks doesn't tell you this.

I'm not going to make a habit of it, don't worry.

I note Donald hasn't really commented on this yet.