Hmmm...

I often check the DefenseLink Casualty Reports to get a sense of what's going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. Checking today to see what the totals bode, it hit me how absurd the categories they use to classify when a casualty occurred. Casulaties are broken down into three categories:

• DoD Civilians
  
• "Combat Operations - 19 Mar 03 thru 30 Apr 03"
  
• "Post Combat Ops - 1 May thru Present
  

109 were KIA during "Combat Ops", whereas 791 have died "Post" combat... 411 wounded not returning to duty "during combat", 4100 wounded "post-combat." 138 dead "during combat", 1166 dead "post combat". 542 wounded "during combat", 7916 wounded "post combat".

It's really a very inapt classification - a stark indicator of the absurdity of our current worldview - that such a vast bulk of our casualties in this war would be considered "post-combat." I often get scolded for thinking too "short-term" in my pessimism about this war.

What then to say of the organizers of this war who arbitrarily divide it into a "combat" phase and a "post combat" phase?