Reply #6: We're not fighting Saddam loyalists anymore

[Selatius]

Most of the hardcore Ba'athists are now either dead or in prison. Sure, there are Ba'athists running around, but then you have several nationalist fronts, Shia and Sunni Islamic fundamentalists, and foreign fighters.

At this point, I think the nationalists are growing the fastest with perhaps religious fundamentalists not far off, and Ba'athists and foreign fighters will largely remain a minority. People who lose loved ones in war and then decide to fight for revenge would probably join one of several nationalist groups or religious groups, and given that a scientific study points to 100,000 dead Iraqis, you've got a very large pool of pissed off Iraqis who are potential fighters, infiltrators, and saboteurs.