POSTWAR GI DEATHS NOW EXCEED TOLL FROM WAR

This, or something like it is a popular headline over the last couple of days. Fairly sensational, isn't it?

And I believe the fact that it does sound a bit sensational reveals a flaw in the general expectations following the major combat of this war.

You see, you've seen these words before...but perhaps they didn't take root.

The war is not over.

We are still at war.

What we are doing is not peacekeeping. In some areas, there is no peace to keep.

And while we are making progress toward a better Iraq, the jihadists of this world are now seeing fit to make Iraq the battlefield.

We are still at war.

One regrets, but is not surprised over fatalities in war. So, if the headline surprises you perhaps you need to revise your thinking about what it is our troops are doing in Iraq.

More American troops have now died since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1 than were killed fighting the war in Iraq.

After a bomb killed a soldier this morning on a highway northwest of Baghdad, the death toll since the end of major combat operations exceeded the number killed during the war, according to the Pentagon. The soldier was the 139th member of the armed services to die since the formal declaration of the end of major combat operations. During the war in March and April, 138 died...

Of the 138 soldiers who died during the war, most died in combat. The Pentagon classified 116 of the deaths as "hostile" and the remaining 22 as "nonhostile," a category that includes deaths due to illness and noncombat accidents.

Since May 1, most of the deaths have been in the nonhostile category — a total of 78, including the roadside accident today. The remaining 62 deaths were in combat situations like the bomb attack.