"look on my works ye mighty and despair"

Shelley's words (through Phil) remind me that bragging on an "exceptional" kingdom does not insure the kingdom (though in the poem the words are the last to go.)

So if the bad guys know we're pulling out in 7/11, they lay low till then. That gives the good guys 18 months to build relationships and infrastructure on the ground with the locals. I wonder if that will be worth anything to the people. What's the downside?