Were 8 US soldiers killed yesterday, besides the 3 being reported? We may not learn for days, weeks or months. As casualties mount, the US military appears to be playing with the numbers. The US only says that 2 were "wounded" in an attack at Khaldiyah, 50 miles west of Baghdad. Foreign reports first thought 8 were killed. Today, it seems more than 4 and perhaps 8 were seriously burned when their convoy was attacked. Are any dead? Will they die in a few days and not be reported?

Why am I posting this? Because our US media reports are again diverging sharply from foreign news media reports. This is what happened during the war last spring - and we learned the truth long after the war. Our US media are now admitting they fudged.

A typical example is FOXnews this morning. The home page lists only one Iraq war story - this one, titled "Former Iraqi Defense Minister Surrenders". Buried in the story - 9/10s down the page - are two paragraphs that briefly report yesterday's ambush of three humvees and does not report any casualties from this. The headline promises a report of further progress, but the report is actually one of multiple attacks on Americans and our mistaken attack on the Italian official looking for stolen antiquities and the killing of his assistant by our soldiers.

Also, the term "wounded" is treated as a minimal event. The daily numbers are not reported and the severity of the "wounds" are not reported. If 8 US boys were severely burned in an attack yesterday, these guys could be in for years of painful surgery and a lifetime of disfigurement or pain. They deserve more respect than a dismissal of their sacrifice by our military and news media. The Bush administration is trying to keep news from the American people of the cost in human lives lost and destroyed. Ah, but GW is OK so long as he doesn't lie about his personal sex life. True patriots would insist on the truth about war casualties - all of them.