Obama stressed the lower casualty rate since US troops moved toward supporting Afghan forces rather than engaging directly in combat.
The system was then modelled using software provided by the Department for Transport, which demonstrated that the implementation of such a scheme would provide vast accident savings, a reduction in the number of casualties on the road, and a monetary saving as a result of the lower casualty rate.
Police sometimes give lower casualty tolls than workers on the scene.
At any rate, his speech of last week, coupled with announcement of continuing troop withdrawals & lower casualties, has practically eliminated Vietnam as an issue in this year's elections.
Despite the undoubtedly lower casualties from Cyclone Phailin, there are signs of some after-the-event inflation going on, with ever larger claims being made for the numbers evacuated.
Aircraft attacking from multiple directions had confused and overwhelmed the Japanese defences, resulting in lower casualties and more accurate bombing.
Mr. Bush's troop escalation has succeeded in stabilizing parts of Baghdad and lowering casualties.
In short, whether intentional or not, all the major proposals on Iraq are based on a lower-visibility, lower-casualty dirty war reminiscent of Algeria, Central America, South Vietnam and, today, Afghanistan.
The deal was similar to one made in the Sunni Muslim city of Falluja, west of Baghdad, and provided a template for a wider American policy that effectively kept United States forces out of cities with a strong rebel presence, with the hope of lowering American casualties and providing breathing space for political negotiations.
That is still sharply lower than coalition casualties last May and continues a trend of fewer coalition casualties over the last two months as the allied countries increasingly hand over responsibility for security to Afghan forces and some nations, like France, prepare to leave ahead of schedule.
This moral confidence, and the lower rates of casualties (until two years ago), help to explain why, for a long time, Afghanistan was overshadowed by Iraq in British debate.
