>I think prez. Hussein was wielding the most dangerous weapon: empty rifle. That one scares on both sides of the barrel. On one side he was trying to convince Blix et al that he really didn't have anything, while still leaving some doubt so that Iran wouldn't think it's a good time to catch him unarmed.

Could be, and maybe this is it in a nutshell for me... are we really *all* ready to believe that Saddam is the sole living proof against Lincoln's famous quote. Did he *really* fool "all the people all the time" for 11 years? Was the *rest of the world* mistaken and Saddam was right all along? He is smart... shrewd even and certainly lucky. But I don't personally believe he's capable of getting away with *all of this* for *all that time*. Not with the *world* watching and inspecting and sanctioning. Seems like someone would have uncovered the ruse and exposed the emperor in his clothes long ago. Otherwise, we're believing the *world* was incompetent for 11 years, while Saddam played the perfect hand during that same period?

I tend toward the simpler explanation. The world's intelligence was right from the beginning. He was hiding weapons. He was trying to procure and/or develop more. We (the world) were onto him. He did something with the WMD, but won't tell us what he did. What we're left with now is second guessing, Monday morning quarterbacking, and politics.

>Maybe they've sworn never to tell which country sold them the chemicals, and just kept their word?

Oh, I'm sure. Just as they've probably sworn never to tell who has the WMD now and plan to keeping their word on that one as well.