From Guest SongBob's post:

"When we invaded Iraq, we went in headlong, expecting and getting very little resistance.

Why? If we truly thought Saddam had WMD, why were we not more cautious? Why the headlong rush to Baghdad?

Why?

Because the powers that ordered the invasion KNEW THERE WOULD BE NO WMD RESPONSE! If they'd expected them, they'd not have done it the way they did, and risk a huge casualty count that the public would fault them for.

They went in unafraid, because they KNEW there was little to fear.

This is March 2003 you are talking about right?

What were the differences in approach to the invasion in 1991 and 2003? Damn few that I can see and we definitely knew that Saddam Hussein HAD WMD in 1991 didn't we. After Safwan UNSCOM inspectors went in there and found a whole rake of them between 1991 and 1998. They wrote many reports regularly detailing the progress they were making, the lack of co-operation they were experiencing, and the discrepencies in the Iraqi inventories and gaps in the records.

Now why if he had these chemical and biological weapons did he not use them. The answer to that is simple. The Russians would have told Saddam that if he used those weapons against NATO troops the response would come in the form of tactical nuclear stikes against Iraq.

Now if he had these chemical and biological weapons which armed forces in the world were best trained and equipped to survive such an attack? NATO, who had been in training to face exactly this threat in Europe for 40 years.

Whether Saddam had any WMD was not the point of the exercise. UNSCOM and its successor UNMOVIC did not go into Iraq TO FIND WMD. Their job was to confirm and verify that IRAQ no longer possessed these weapons, to confirm and verify that Iraq was no longer pursuing the development or acquisition of those weapons or the means to deliver them, because at Safwan in April 1991 Saddam Hussein's representatives on behalf or Iraq had agreed to disarm in a manner that could be verified and confirmed by the United Nations appointed Inspectors. The invasion of March 2003 was undertaken to force compliance of the Safwan Agreement on Iraq and verify beyond doubt that Iraq disarmed, and that was done.