In the article directly below this, I expressed the thought that Fred Kagan’s demanded escalation will produce some serious casualty figures.

Because of Mr Bu$h’s plummeting polls, the malAdministration is doubly anxious to supply some signs of success, since they live and die by daily reports of good news. Thus we have one or more brigades concentrating on this cordon battle supported by large numbers of Apache gunships and the frequent drive-bys of Air Force tactical ground strikes.

We can expect stunning casualty figures among US and Iraqis.

It seems I was horribly prophetic. Jersey Guy at the Alternate Brain has the awful news as he excerpts a CNN report:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Fourteen U.S. troops have been killed in attacks over the past two days in Iraq -- 12 soldiers and two Marines -- according to the U.S. military.

In the deadliest attack, a roadside bomb struck a military vehicle on Thursday in northeastern Baghdad, killing five U.S. soldiers, three Iraqi civilians and an Iraqi interpreter.

A U.S. soldier and two civilians were wounded.

Also Thursday, a rocket-propelled grenade struck a U.S. military vehicle in northern Baghdad, killing a soldier and wounding three others.

On Wednesday, a roadside bomb killed two U.S. Task Force Marne troops and wounded four others southwest of Baghdad.

A similar attack in western Baghdad on Wednesday killed four U.S. soldiers and wounded a fifth.

In addition, two Marines were killed in combat operations in Iraq's Anbar province on Wednesday.

With the deaths, 3,545 U.S. military personnel, including seven civilian employees of the Defense Department, have died in the Iraq war -- 68 of them in the month of June.

A special note to Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi: These are YOUR dead GIs. Remember them. Cherish them. Honor them. Your refusal to do the honorable, moral, ethical, compassionate, Christian, thing is implicated in the death of every American, every ally and every Iraqi killed in that country.

Because you didn’t want to be pestered during your vacation with accusations of weakness from death-worshippers, you took the coward’s way out and once again crawled to George Bu$h and obediently offered him what he demanded.

I hope each and every one of the dead GIs from two weeks ago until when we finally unass this dishonorable, disgraceful massacre visit you every night. I hope their screams make sleep impossible.