The jihadis are not just going to high five the ex-Saddam guys, throw flowers, let the Baathists resume UN-recognized thuggery, and retire to their French villas to write their memoirs. As a recent letter from Zawahiri captured by the US military warning about Zarquawi's slaughter-fest states:
"And it is that the Mujaheddin must not have their mission end with the expulsion of the Americans from Iraq, and then lay down their weapons, and silence the fighting zeal. We will return to having the secularists and traitors holding sway over us," the letter reportedly says.
The jihadis are using the Baathists, too, and should we pull out of Iraq too soon, the fighting would not die down in kite-flying happiness. What happens after our hoped-for departure may not be terribly clear to the Baathists but it is clear to the jihadis.
It might justify an investigation into poor post-war planning by the Baathists.
