A Schooling in Army-Speak & A Class in Numbers

A casualty and a fatality are two very different things. A casualty is someone who is injured and no longer considered "combat effective". These types are also known as "WIA" or Wounded in Action. A fatality is someone who assumes room temperature. Fatalities are "KIA" or Killed in Action. Technically, there is another category for those who die of medical or emotional complications as well as "Other" types of mishaps (falling off a tank, drowning, murder, etc).

Unfortunately, I'm writing this post in response to Vox's "Bring them home now" post. For the purpose of the discussion, I will use the same source as he did, Strategy Page. Vox cites the following figures in his post:

March 2003 267
March 2004 375
March 2005 407
March 2006 520

The problem with these numbers is that these are the total of KIAs and WIAs. Using Strategy Page still, here are the real numbers for US Fatalities:

March 2003: 65
March 2004: 52
March 2005: 35
March 2006: 31

These numbers paint a very different picture, don't they? It is also worthy mentioning that more people died during the attacks that took place on September 11, 2001, than have died in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom combined. An interesting fact is that there were far more casualties during the opening hours of the D-Day invasion than there have been in OIF & OEF combined.

Crispy