why when soldiers are killed...?

Yes a troop is a unit. Anyone ever hear of the TV show "F Troop?" In the frontier days there were outposts manned by a cavalry troop which was smaller than a squad.

Check here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troop

An individual soldier can be referred to as a trooper.

In the rest of the military we loosely use the term troops to refer to those under your command or in your unit: "Take care of the troops." or "Support the troops."

In this sense of supporting military personnel, it has through a linguistic trick called back-formation, changed and now a troop means one military person. Kind of language laziness.

And thus usage defines the dictionary as well as the other way around.

It has nothing to do with the liberal media. That's just idiotic.

English is a language filled with lunacy and nonsense. It's that simple.

If Con is the opposite of Pro, then is Congress the opposite of Progress?

If you can make amends, why can't you make one amend?

Or take, for instance, the wide variety of words with multiple meanings and occasionally different pronounciations - Sow, Set, Marine, Tire, Wind, Subject, Tear, Soldier.

As such, it really shouldn't come as a surprise that the word "Troops" has multiple definitions. But I suppose to make it more confusing, some of those definitions fall within the same subject - the military. That's just the way our language is.

It might be less confusing if the media said "Servicemen" instead (which would probably be politically incorrect by today's standards), but using "Troops" to refer to more than one soldier is an ancient term... or at least ancient enough for me to have heard it in Star Wars.

Hello ,

Troop is a Civil War and Post Civil War term for land and mounted Military Personnel . The term never bothered me . I was a Sailor though .. spent years right along side Marines and I never heard a wine from them about being called or typecasted "Troop" . Dear civilian , Alive or dead , Troop is said . We want to serve our Country and Wed . Love us when we kill , Love us when we hurt . Love us when we heal , Love us when were curt . Remember our Heros Straight or Gay , call us what you want , we Love USA .

They want to make it seem like a lot of our troops are dieing because they are against the war and want you to be to.

1 soldier would be a trooper and i guess troops is shorter than soldiers. i dont think there's a real reason behind it.

never thought of it like that. but good point. the liberal media is out to make something small-ish (even though the death of even one soldier is extreme tragedy, one is small compared to 1 thousand.. so im just using smallish for this example) look as if were being obliterated left and right over there when thats the furthest from the truth

no not really soldier is a army and marine don't like beening call a soldier. the new can not get no soldier or marine to talk about how many people's was kill. at fort benning in jump school we train together.

Army= Soldier

Navy=Sailor

Air Force = Airmen

Marines= Marine

Coast Guard= Coasties

Troops can be used to describe anyone of these ..

no it doesn't cause my dad is in the us army and he has told me that when there is one solder who has died it is respect to call him a soljer in stead of a troop

Actually, yes. It also bothers me when they confuse a SOLDIER with a MARINE.