Joe Ofer et al:

You all seem to miss the entire point.

The US acted, after extensive UN resoulutions, because there was reason to believe that Iraq had WMD and other prohibited weapons... NOTE THE PROHIBITED!

The UN had passed resolutions forbidding Iraq to possess WMD- It has not made resolutions against the US, Russia, Israel, China, Korea, Pakistan, India etc... Why is it too much to think that the Left, which complained so much about the US acting "without" UN support, cannot bear to think that the US IS acting under previous UN guidence?

And where were all of you hypocrites between the last UN resolution and the US attack? I saw many protests againat the US- In most of Europe, and throughout the US. NOWHERE did I see a single protester asking that Saddam keep to the terms of the ceasefire, and follow the UN resoulutions that had already been passed- NOWHERE. It seems to me that you are saying that the policeman is not supposed to act, but it is ok for the criminal to continue illegal activites.

I invite sane discussion of this. Try not to just make personal attacks on me for having a different opinion than you. Whenever I ask for facts to base a decision upon, I am told that only the ones from "properly" biased souces are valid- so show me on your choice of sites where my analysis is wrong.

And should anyone mention the UN inspectors, just remember that "and the material itself was at least fifteen years old, beyond its shelf life. " So where were they all this time, if the inspections were so great?

I do not consider these shells to be WMD, but that does not mean they were not prohibited. Why is it that you all consider lack of evidence to be evidence of lack? It has not been proven, to some of you at least, that there are WMD in Iraq- fine, but how does that PROVE that there are not??? I think that there are some indications that would lead a careful person to believe that the WMD exist, or are unaccounted for. Just because it does not fit your preconcieved political views does not mean that you can just dismiss this additional proof that Iraq had prohibited material, cannot account for known stocksof WMD, and was in substantial violation of the UN resolutions.

Get real!