NO WMD STOCKPILES IN IRAQ

Okay. Then where are they, in Syria (DEBKA and others reported in early 2003 that they were trucked there by the Russians in late 2002)?

Or was Saddam bluffing - to create a deterrent? Or were his scientists?

IT DOESN'T MATTER TO ME. Even if he had no WMD stockpiles, and even if he made none from 1991-2002 - Saddam still violated UNSCR#1441: he had illegal missile programs; and illegal WMD labs & production capabilities; and he had hidden parts necessary for a nuclear enrichment program - ALL BANNED BY ALL THE UNSCRS AND UNSCR#1441! AND HE FILED A FALSE FINAL REPORT! AND HE WAS ABUSING THE OIL FOR FOOD PROGRAM! AND HE DRAINED THE GREAT BASRA SWAMP! AND HE WAS STARVING AND TORTURING HIS TYRANNIZED PEOPLE! (SEE: Duelfer's testimony HERE for more proof Saddam was in violation of UNSCR#1441.)

And - strategically - we had to get our troops out of Saudi Arabia (that was after all Bin Laden's #1 complaint & recruiting plank). Removing Saddam was the only way to do that.

ALSO: Iran is now surrounded. ALSO: Iraq is a now magnet for Jihadoterrists; they go there and die; dead ones are a smaller threat to us than lives ones. AND: liberating Iraq from tyranny and establishing a democracy there will begin to eradicate the "root causes" of neo-Jihadism: poverty; ignorance; xenophobia. As Iraq improves - and as Iraqis remain Islamic - (NOT Islamist or Baathist) - other Arabs and Muslims all over the world will begin to see that modernity and Islam can co-exist; NAY: they will see that they can thrive together. And that the only thing that stands between them and the future is tyranny.

YUP: Saddam was one bad-guy who had to go. A few more should join him.