U.S. count of Baghdad deaths excludes car bombs, mortar attacks

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15474438.htm
"BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. officials, seeking a way to measure the results of a program aimed at decreasing violence in Baghdad, aren't counting scores of dead killed in car bombings and mortar attacks as victims of the country's sectarian violence."
"In a distinction previously undisclosed, U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Johnson said Friday that the United States is including in its tabulations of sectarian violence only deaths of individuals killed in drive-by shootings or by torture and execution."
"That has allowed U.S. officials to boast that the number of deaths from sectarian violence in Baghdad declined by more than 52 percent in August over July."
"Within weeks of the kickoff of the Baghdad security plan, the U.S. military's top spokesman, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, boasted that the murder rate in Baghdad had fallen by 46 percent and attributed most of the fall to the new security sweeps."


Reporter: Mr. President...Mr. President...if there has not been as many as 500,000 Iraqis killed due to the Coalition invasion of Iraq, then how many have been?
President: "oh, about 10 or 20 Iraqis."
(Not an actual conversation. I just made it up, exaggerating slightly. - Vox)