The point is that between 1980 and 2002, an average of close to 900 active duty military personnel have died in accidents every year. In recent years, this number has dropped to a bit over 400. That doesn't count deaths by other non-combat causes.

In other words, there have been an average of about 1.6 combat deaths per day in Iraq. During 20 years of relative peacetime, there have been an average of 2.5 deaths per day by accident.

And yes, all of them are really dead, and it's difficult to imagine that the family gets much more comfort from knowing their loved one died in a car crash at Fort Ord, rather than fighting murderous insurgents overseas.

Numbers here.

The media started sneaking non-combat deaths into the total a while back, found out they could get away with it, and have been doing it ever since. This kind of "finesse" is common, as when referring to over 10,000 wounded, while failing to mention that half of them returned to duty.