MGOH,

The WMD material stocks, agents, munitions and weapons systems that this war was about, were the ones that were known to exist, but were unnaccounted for as of December 1998 (Detailed in the UNSCOM Report of January 1999) - If you contend that that report was lying, then the fault lies with the UN.

The inspectors return to Iraq was due entirely to pressure applied by the US Government. Having returned they did not receive the full and active co-operation of the Iraqi Authorities, promised by Saddam Hussein in November 2002. That brought about the change of emphasis to the removal from power of the regime that was hindering the disarmament process.

TIA,

The work carried out by IAEA in Iraq recently clearly established that Iraq had no stock of weapons grade radioactive material. The main point of the IAEA inspection campaign that remained unresolved related to the interviewing of those known to have been part of the Iraqi nuclear programme. Those interviews were required to verify that the Iraqi nuclear weapons programme had indeed been stopped.

Tweed,

Phrases in your post such as "the horrendous damage done to civilians there," - and "bombed the crap out of a nation" - are more than slight exaggeration. Going on Saddam's own averages the number of Iraqi civilians who would have suffered "horrendous damage" during the same period would have been 11,844 - approximately ten times the number of civilian casualties reported during the conflict.

As for, "and now we can buy the oil after it's processed by Texaco/Shell, Exxon/Mobil or whichever MajorOil Corp with a finger in the pie," Where was Iraqi oil refined before? You should take the time and effort into looking at how the "downstream" side of the oil industry works.