The elections in Iraq this week will see the guys who long for the return of Saddam going to the polls:
In a move unthinkable in the bloody run-up to the last election, guerrillas in the western insurgent heartland of Anbar province say they are even prepared to protect voting stations from fighters loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.
The jihadis reject any compromise:
Five Islamic militant groups, including al-Qaida in Iraq, denounced the Iraqi elections as a "satanic project" that violates God's law and vowed to continue their war to establish an Islamic government in the country.
So the enemies of the Iraqi government are splitting. As long as we don't abandon them, Iraqi forces will subdue the well-financed and well-armed Sunni enemy that imports the most vicious killers from the Sunni world who have essentially bought the all-day ticket to their fantasy Jihad World in Iraq.
These jihadis remember the stirring tales of their older family members who flocked to Pakistan to go to training camps to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. But these were mostly jihadi-tourists who spent their time in Pakistan refugee camps because the Afghans didn’t want amateurs getting Afghan fighters killed. These Sunni jihadis came home with a couple of photos from rare Dan Rather-style forays into the edges of the fight combined with tales of magic hats and Apocalypse Now-style boat trips into Cambodia—no wait, that’s another war fantasy altogether.
The jihadis provide a convenient common enemy for the Baathists and allied Sunnis, the Shias, and the Kurds. Much like the memory in France of extensive French resistance to the Nazis, Iraqis of all stripes will all have been against “the resistance” when our side wins.
