The Inverse Body Count

In Vietnam, the military and the Presidents kept insisting we were winning, and the measure of choice was the body count. Hence, every dead body was a Viet Cong. We were piling up impressive body counts, but we weren't winning the war. Body counts may impact "winning" or "losing" a war, but they don't define it.

Now in Iraq, the new metric seems to be the inverse. Fewer Iraqis are dying! We're winning the war! Of course, now many of the dead bodies don't count, because if we counted them, then we wouldn't be winning the war. So if a Shi'ite Iraqi is killed by another Shi'ite, that doesn't count; same thing for intra-Sunni fighting. Because after all, a civil war can only have two sides, right? Oh wait, I forgot, it's not a civil war; oops! Sectarian violence, that's the new term, so obviously, dead Iraqis should only count if they're killed by somebody from the other sect.

And Iraqis killed by car bombs don't count, either, because how are you going to tell who set off that car bomb?! Iraqis killed by Americans don't count, either, because we're the good guys just trying to keep the peace. See how easy it is to figure out that we're winning! Just count some of the dead Iraqis, and then things must be getting better!