Bush Quietly Rolls Back Iraq Death Toll To Zero

BAGHDAD—Nearly two weeks after President Bush's surprise visit to Iraq, the first American combat death in the region has occurred, military sources revealed Monday. "I could have sworn that almost 2,500 American servicemen and women had sacrificed their lives in this theater of operation, but the death toll counter here in my office read 'zero' this morning, and that's what we go by," said Gen. George W. Casey Jr., commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, after announcing the casualty, which took place outside Fallujah on Sunday. "No one's been in the room but myself and the president, so I guess I was mistaken. Which is a relief." The soldier whose death marked the tragic milestone, Army Spc. Jason Hopkinson of Butte, MT, will be memorialized with a monument in Arlington National Cemetery, next to the 2003 monument commemorating the previous first American to die in Iraq.