Vengeance PR from the Pentagon?

I understand that the new strategy in Afghanistan emphasizes protecting and winning over the civilian population. You would think that metrics such as body counts would raise Vietnam ghostss. But in the wake of a week in which ten U.S. soldiers died, this latest from the Pentagon (as reported by the AP) seems to answer a visceral need:

KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghan and American forces killed 40 militants in 24 hours as they hunted in mountainous eastern Afghanistan for insurgents behind one of the deadliest attacks of the war for U.S. troops, the defense ministry said Tuesday.

Ministry spokesman Gen. Mohammad Zahir Azimi said 10 Afghan army troops were also killed in the same period around the country, most of them in Nuristan province's Kamdesh district, where eight Americans and two Afghan security troopers died Saturday after hundreds of Taliban militants overwhelmed their remote and thinly manned outposts.