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>As far as the intelligence goes, I know I'm a die-hard when it comes to this, but somehow I have a feeling that he had some of these WMD even shortly before we invaded. We do know he had them at one point such that he was able to gas thousands of people. Do we really believe that he used them all? What happened to the remaining ones? Were those the only kinds of weapons he had? And remember that *everyone* thought he had various kinds and that some were unaccounted for... wasn't just us. Wasn't just the GOP either... and since that "intelligence" was gathered long before Bush took office, the blame can't be hung solely around his regime's collective neck.

From the above it is quite clear that, if it was the case he had WMD until slightly before, the intelligence failure was far greater than first estimated! The hundreds of millions spent after the war to find those WMD, INCLUDING arresting anyone with minor connections to learn ANYTHING possible about them would surely have turned up evidence of such weapons' shipment or destruction or burial or?????.
Again, we see what we want to see...
The original inspectors, after the defection of Saddam's son-in-law, destroyed tons of WMD. It's possible they got them all.

By the way, I agree that your 5 steps were in operation for years. But the last time it was different, and Saddam was given NO option but to continue with the unrelenting pressure and I am quite comfortable with the notion that he was ready to accept asylum some where.

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