It is silly to ignore the facts -- that American initiatives contributed to the casualties. No one suggests that the enemy here cannot marshall their forces, although their ability to do so is limited. To blindly assume increased casualties are caused by the enemy's ability to increase our casualties at will shows ignorance of the simplest statistical analysis.
Your emotional problem with the statistics: "increase our casualties at will " is a very, very silly straw man. I make no claim of the terorists abilities- only their intent.
What casualties will result from attacks no one ever knows. However attacks are made for the purpose of inflicting casualties.
It is the number of attacks that they are able to increase and the resources devoted to them. They do so during the election season- as the casualty statistics show.
BTW Operation Phantom Fury started a week after the election was over.