Terrorists/Insurgents are Getting Better at Killing Americans and Iraqis Without Killing Themselves in the Process

Considering the fact that both coalition and Iraqi civilian deaths are as high as ever (with one excpetion that I will get to), the above title seems to be the most accurate way of reading
this.

I will admit, though, that Iraqi police/military deaths are at the lowest point in seven months.

Now as to the "exception." First, when I say "as high as ever," I mean that the number of hostile coalition deaths and Iraqi civilian deaths for November is at or above the general level it has been at for the past seven months, that is, the numbers of dead have not been tremendously higher for any of the six previous months.

The exception, of course, is August, where Iraqi civilian deaths were 1524. However, this was sort of a fluke because 965 deaths were caused in a single incident, a stampede that came from rumors of a suicide bomber (which I think may have been a deliberate move by the insurgents to terrorize the Shia). So the fact that fatalities are down compared to August does not necessarily mean that the insurgents are weakening, just that they have not "gotten lucky" the way they did in August again.

That is all.