BeardedBruce, we are arguing at cross purposes. I was arguing that the article posted by CO was poor propaganda. I wasn't really arguing against your slightly more measured stance. Once again, the headline:

UN inspectors: Saddam shipped out WMD before war and after

Even by the lead, they have equivocated to "WMD components." Which components? Why, the ones that do not cause mass destruction, of course. By the time we get to the quotes, it turns out they are talking about scrap metal from dismantled weapons--scrap that obviously WAS revealed to the UN inspectors because it was "replete with UN tags." Also, some fermenters that we have no evidence were ever part of WMD manufacture.

Are these items actually the same as "weapons of mass destruction?" I have been arguing that no, they are not.

Now, you claim:

I have referred to WMD ( weapons ) and prohibited materials (including the manufacturing facilities and the delivery systems.

Fair enough. I was not arguing against this. I concede that there may have been some prohibited items found. Indeed, I think it's pretty inevitable. Nevertheless, I think the prohibited items that HAVE been found are a less serious matter than you do. We were not told by our President before this war that Iraq had "some prohibited delivery systems." We were told they had weapons of mass destruction and fed hysterical language about the smoking gun being a mushroom cloud. There has since been no evidence that it was true or that the mushroom cloud was even a remote possibility.

(I confess, by the way, that I am suspicious of your handling of evidence. You disregard the military's pronouncements on whether chemical weapons were used on Israel but accept as gospel their pronouncements as to what was found in Iraq. It seems to me you simply believe whatever supports your ideology, regardless of who makes the claim.)

Many Americans were also led to believe that 9/11 and Iraq were somehow linked, which both the "dodgy dossier" author AND now the 9/11 commission, have found to be false. But that's a topic for another thread.