Depending which documents one reads, The official US Department of Defense figures for the total number of US soldiers killed in Iraq is 1,814.
But there is wide spread speculation that the actual numbers are much higher. At issue is the method the DOD uses to count and the various categories by which deaths are tallied. For example if a soldier dies in transport by air from wounds sustained in Iraq to an army hospital outside Iraq, the death is not counted as killed in Iraq if the plane has flown outside Iraqi airspace. This and other shell games are being used to fix the numbers.
Military Families are seeing an increase in the loss of loved ones, and numbers on the home front and those from the battlefield are not matching up. The concern is that the government is covering up the real numbers for political reasons.
Original: DOD numbers don't add up