The Sound of Silence

The Kansas City Star writes, based upon a Knight-Ridder story:

A suicide bomber killed at least 10 people and injured 40 at a busy checkpoint in Baghdad on Wednesday, ending a quiet spell since the restoration of Iraqi sovereignty with a powerful blast outside the new government's compound.

Between July 1, 2004 and July 14 2004, we've lost 21 servicemen in combat. There was a mortar attack upon U.S. troops, a mortar assault on the home of Iyad Allawi, a car bomb in Baquba, a major pipeline attack, an engagement in Ramadi...

I don't bring this up to be doom and glooming. But the lead-in to all the stories of this suicide attack seem to postulate a quiet spell which has now been shattered. Though the news has been receiving less coverage, there hasn't been appreciably less news.

I'm not arguing that they're putting a gloss on the situation or that there's a bias here. Just shocking to here the headlines of the last several days described as a lull. What exactly makes a "quiet period" quiet?