Murkur wrote:

I’m sure that chemical weapons existed in Iraq, since while I was there I met some of the victims of Halabja. The problem is, that was in the 1990s; no significant WMDs have been found post-invasion, as far as I’m aware – but feel free to prove me wrong.

The issue of WMDs in Iraq is pretty far off topic, and I’d promised myself I wouldn’t contribute to it.

But, I think it is worth noting that WMDs were found in Iraq, post-Saddam.

True, most of these were old and probably degraded.

But that makes the point they were some of the very ones that Mr. Hussein was known to have had on hand prior to inspections, had failed to account for, and, indeed, had prompted and sustained the UN inspections themselves, not to mention having factored heavily into the rationale for invasion.

It’s also worth noting that the debates before the war, both domestic and international, centered on what to do about the WMD Mr. Hussein was known to have, not on whether or not he had them.

Was military action warranted? Should sanctions be prolonged, and if so, for how long and under what conditions should they be lifted? Those were the topics of pre-war debate.

Brian