The AP's source for its numbers is given as "press reports." Press reports out of Afghanistan, if they include civilians killed by the insurgents, come from the Coalition or the Afghan government, and you may be sure that for each reported death there actually was a dead body.

The AP also does not count dead non-Afghans who are killed by their Taliban pals, including the recent murders of German and Japanese hostages. If you look at their other coverage, the AP glossed over the murdered hostages but have been fawning all over the Taliban for the released hostages (and full of excuses for why the terrorists still hold hostages).

When the AP counts dead killed by the coalition, it accepts reports from the Taliban's spokesman-of-the-week in Pakistan, an agency with a worse track record than even AP; as well as hearsy and rumours. For example, the AP reported the strike on Dadullah Mansour at the start of the month, which was aimed at a group of Taliban gathered to watch the hanging of accused spies, as having killed a few Taliban but dozens of civilians.

This wanton-killing-of-civilians has been an emergent propaganda theme for the TB and the AP since July. It's previously been used from time to time, but take a look at the instances in Google News in the last month and you'll see they've really spiked. This isn't an accident, this is an attempt to steer the public discourse in a direction favorable to the insurgency.

The AP's US editors are not overt participants in the propaganda campaign in the way some of their local stringers are. But it's a line of argument that's congenial to their prejudices and expectations, so they come willingly on board.

Obama and his campaign people have much less excuse. He comes off as callow.

But, as I pointed out several times, he said that all we were doing was bombing civilians from the air. That's not true.

BUT he is right

the problem is the strategy and tactics being used

THE FACTS ARE more civillians are killed by our soldiers than by the insurgients in Afghanistan