Is the Pentagon counting dead civilians as "insurgents" ?

[G_j]

Iraq Statistics Tell Grim Story (August 8, 2005)

Despite official Pentagon declarations that US forces are inflicting serious damage on the Iraqi resistance, this report finds that the insurgency is growing. Military officials claim that US troops have killed up to 50,000 rebel fighters since serious resistance began in 2003. The writer argues that since the insurgency grows stronger every month, there can only be two explanations. Either the insurgency quickly replaces killed fighters with fresh, highly trained, ones; or the Pentagon's is counting a large number of civilians as "insurgents." The second theory, he believes, is the correct one. (United Press International)

http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/resist/2005/0808grim.htm

[uppityperson]

1. If they weren't insurgents, they wouldn't be dead?

I want to say most likely but I can't swear to it (just at it).

[nytemare]

2. Just like the only troops counted as casualties had to die in Iraq

I wonder what happened with that story, that was out a month or so ago.

:shrug:

[Richard Steele]

5. That one has been showing up once a week, for MONTHS now...

And it's just as false every time.

It's very easy to believe that B*shCabalInc™ _WOULD_
do that.
But they aren't.

It's been debunked.

As far as counting dead civilians as "insurgents", however,
there can be very little doubt that that is happening.

[nytemare]

7. Yes, I'm sure there isn't much investigation behind the deaths

that could even tell if they were insurgents or not.

[G_j]

8. Pentagon: "we don't do body counts" (of civilians)

but that turned out to be not necessarily true

[Career Prole]

3. That's been my suspicion all along.

Otherwise they would have "died in vain" :sarcasm:

How many wedding parties were blown up over there, and the Pentagon would never, ever admit to being wrong on their claims?

And we absolutely can't have that.

[The Magistrate]

4. That Is A Certainty, Sir

The rules for "body count" in Viet Nam were the same: if it is dead, it was the enemy....

[mmonk]

6. Yes

[txindy]

9. Of course

Anyone killed is immediately labelled an "insurgent" so that we look as if we're accomplishing something other than the killing of innocent civilians.

It reminds me of a large corp. I used to work for. They wanted to cut jobs to impress Wall Street, so they took a lot of departments (including mine) and renamed them. Ta-da! Jobs - the old jobs - had been "eliminated." Progress, don't you know. Wall Street rewarded them for it, too. What a crock. We all still worked there, doing the exact same work, but our dept. names had changed. Meanwhile, thousands of jobs had been officially "eliminated." :eyes:

Semantics. This admin. and its corp. enablers are masters of it.