It makes for a more defensible argument. No sane person is going to argue that a 4 year old child is an enemy combatant. But a 20 year old male? It’s easy to argue they could have been an enemy combatant and so maybe the numbers are inflated. Saying 1000 people can be interpreted as 999 enemies and only 1 civilian casualty. Saying 1000 women and children is usually interpreted as 1000 innocent lives lost.