Doug, we've had this conversation before. I assume that you didn't read resolution 986 this time either, or bother to independantly verify the way the program works. Where do you think we get all this info about what he buys? His credit card statement?

Let's say Saddam submits a request for an allowed item like wood or cloth. Yeah, he could be building himself new furniture or hanging new drapes instead of repairing a building and distributing clothes.

But any verboten items like weapons grade uranium, let's say, are not going to get through the Security Council. He'd have to buy them on the black market. It's certainly possible (I'd say probable), but there's a limit to how much trade he can do while under 24/7/365 survellience from the US and UK. He can't be pumping out millions of barrels of crude. It would cause obvious fluctations in the oil market, not to mention the unliklihood none of those shipments would be noticed. This isn't Star Trek and you can't teleport your supplies in and out or go to the replicator and *poof!* it's on the slab.

The idea that Saddam has the secret resources and technology to have a massive chemical, biological or nuclear weapons program defies logic. If the inspectors were sure they had 96% of his capacity destroyed in 1996, how much can he have done since them?

The point is, the inspections work. They worked before and they can work again. Nor has Saddam made any threats toward the US; the only threats being made are coming from the Bush administration (and the Koreans and bin Laden... none of which are in Iraq). He might get away with an infraction here and there, but testing a long range missile, for example, can hardly go unnoticed. Chemical factories and biological labs take huge amounts of power and resources -- he can't just hide 'em in a hut in the desert.