reality-based educator

From the Associated Press:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. military on Friday announced the deaths of six more American troops killed in the recent barrage of violence that has swept Iraq, bringing to 11 the number of troops killed on the same day.

The military said a U.S. Marine and soldier died in the attack by a suicide bomber who infiltrated a line of police recruits in Ramadi Thursday. Two soldiers were killed in the Baghdad area when their vehicle hit a roadside bomb, the military said Friday.

Two U.S. Marines were killed by separate small arms attacks while conducting combat operations in Fallujah on Thursday, the military said Friday.

Five soldiers were also killed by a roadside bomb south of Karbala on Thursday, the military announced previously.

At least 189 people were killed in a string of suicide attacks and roadside bombs Wednesday and Thursday.

The eleven U.S. deaths were the most in a single day since 11 troops were killed on Dec. 1, when 10 Marines were killed by a roadside bomb while on a foot patrol near Fallujah.

At least 2,194 members of the U.S. military have died since the war began, according to an Associated Press count. The names and hometowns of the eleven troops killed Thursday weren't released.

Suicide bombers penetrated a line of police recruits in Ramadi and a crowd of Shiite pilgrims in Karbala Thursday, killing 125 civilians, a stark surge in post-election violence and the fourth deadliest day in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Bloodiest day in iraq for American troops in since December 1. Over 180 civilians were also killed in the violence. According to The New York Times, the top operational commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen John R. Vines, fears "that sectarian rivalries and incompetence could cripple major ministries and turn newly American-trained Iraqi security forces into militias for hire." The true cost of the war is getting closer to $1 or $2 trillion dollars, not the $100 billion to $200 billion the Bush administration said it was going to cost. And it seems quite likely that the new religious Shiite government elected by the Iraqi people will be closer allies to Iran than they will to the United States.

But it's all going well, you know? After the December elections, we've turned another corner, you know? And we're definitely making the Middle East a better place because we've taken Saddam out.

You know?