As far as the field was concerned in Vietnam, every dead Vietnamese was considered to be Viet Cong or NVA.

In his book "State of Denial" Woodward talks quite a bit about body counts. He quotes people as saying the military wanted to resist them, citing the Vietnam experience. However, fairly early on when giving the president news about battles and US casualties he would ask how many of the badguys got it. Body counts started to be included as a way of justifying the US deaths.

The book claims that if the president expresses an interest in some subject, not just body counts, during his briefings, those things become the subject of further briefings.

He also talks about the Saudi Ambassador to the US, his friendship with Bush and the warnings he gave Bush.

It's a fascinating book, and really doesn't go into Woodward's interpretation of events so much as he quotes people to whom he had access, including Bush, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice and many, many others. It reads like a novel, and I would class it as a 'must read' for anyone who wants to understand better the maneuvering which got the US into the war and how the cast of characters played interacted up until the 2006 elections.

I'd be interested in reading any similar recounting of events through the eyes of any other journalist with similar access to the principals. Not the opinions of a Wolfowitz or Perle, but reporting.

Arf