Dave Smith wrote:
>
> "Pete C." wrote:
>
> > > Yes, there were some WMDs in the country. For some reason the US had no
> > > problem with Saddam having and using chemical weapons on the Iranians back
> > > in the 80s. they even gave them satellite intelligence to help them use
> > > their chemical shells more efficiently. The weapons inspectors did find
> > > some obsolete CW supplies and destroyed them.
> >
> > The UNSCOM inspectors found large chemical weapons production facilities
> > and somewhat smaller biological weapons production facilities. They
> > found very large stockpiles of ready to use chemical weapons and barrels
> > of chemical agent. They also found the beginnings of nuclear weapons
> > development facilities (gas centrifuges).
>
> When did they find them? BEFORE the invasion. They had everything. There
> was no more.

The UN teams had only destroyed a small portion of the stockpiles before
Saddam kicked them out. If you want to be really technical, the UN
pulled them out because Saddam was preventing them from doing their
jobs, which is effectively the same thing.

>
> >
> > The UN teams completed destruction of the production facilities and had
> > begun destruction of the stockpiles when Saddam kicked them out.
>
> You didn't read the timeline very well did you. The UN pulled them out
> because the US was planning air strikes.

Incorrect, the UN pulled their teams out because Saddam was preventing
them from doing their jobs. The air strikes were a separate thing the
preceded the creation of the no-fly zones.

>
> > A decade later when Saddam let the UN inspectors back in under threat of
> > attack by Bush, the inspectors were unable to locate the remaining
> > stockpiles they had inventoried years earlier.
>
> They were pulled out by the UN in late 1998 and they were back in early
> 2002. That is a hell of a short decade.

Plenty of time for Saddam to move and hide the remaining WMDs.

>
> > > They also had problems with
> > > some of the missiles that the Iraqis had been building or modifying. That
> > > was before the invasion, before Bush's ultimatum. Bush went ahead with the
> > > invasion based on allegations of a vast arsenal of WMDS that they were not
> > > able to find after they invaded.
> >
> > The only part you got right there was that the remaining stockpiles of
> > WMDs have still not been located or accounted for.
>
> If there was enough proof of their presence they should not have had
> trouble finding them.

That is one of the most moronic things you've said. The stockpiles were
inventoried, the UN teams know exactly what is unaccounted for. Finding
them after Saddam and his cronies had literally years to hide them
anywhere in an entire country is absurdly difficult. The big fault of
the administration in selling the war is to focus on one reason and
ignore the dozen others, and of course they should have known that one
reason would be the most difficult to show results on.

Pete C.