alternatehistory.com

IOTL, Saddam Hussein was captured in December 2003, seven months after the end of the invasion, while Bin-Laden managed to avoid capture for another ten years after 9/11.

What if their fates switch? Osama, most likely by pure dumb luck, is captured somewhere on the Afghan-Pakistani border within a year of the invasion of Afghanistan (somewhere in summer or autumn 2004).

Saddam Hussein is successful in staying out of Allied hands. He eventually manages to rally the Sunni resistance, the remnants of the Ba'ath regime and surviving Republican Guard troops around him and he makes himself the face of the Sunni resistance.

Remainders of the Ba'ath regime's intelligence services infiltrate the new government and undermine it from within. Coordinated terrorist attacks against psychological and strategic targets like police stations, training camps for the new Iraqi army, polling stations, government buildings and even locations within Baghdad's most highly guarded areas (the areas declared "safe zones" by the new government) take place on an almost daily basis. Guerrilla raids by Republican Guard units attack enemy patrols and supply columns while Palestine style mortar attacks are employed against more hardened targets. Illegal radio broadcasts summon the population to resist American occupation whichever way they can; mostly the Sunni minority follow Saddam Hussein even if the majority resists only passively. A unified Sunni resistance occurs which has a lot of sympathizers outside Iraq and so, many Sunnis go to Iraq to fight for Saddam against the "big devil".

By 2011, Saddam Hussein is still at large and mosy likely alive since his radio broadcasts continue...

How does this affect Iraq and the world...
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