Ray,
You touched on something very important that many who speculate on this topic don’t realize.
When you mention the postwar cooperation between Baathists and al Qaeda being only a response to war it asks the question “What if Saddam and al Qaeda both were ALREADY at war with the U.S.?”
Looking close at this question you can quickly find that al Qaeda certainly was as evidence by their proclamations of war against the U.S. and their open acts of war against the U.S. both before and after 9-11.
But what about Saddam? Well, according to the man who spent a lot of time with Saddam in custody – George Piro (in Ron Kessler’s book) – says Saddam DID think he was at war with the U.S. and had been at war with them since the first Gulf War. Saddam also make public speeches about being at war with the U.S. though reportedly told those in the Iraqi Perspectives Project that he wanted to be friends with the U.S.
So if Saddam thought he was at war with the U.S. and al Qaeda already was, he’d be foolish not to have at least attempted cooperation with someone who for all intents and purposes was an ally.
