Sadly, Democrats played a role

[stevenleser]

119. Most people strongly believed WMD were in Iraq and programs restarted to produce them.

I've been through the timeline literally hundreds of times. There are IMO three time periods to consider:

1. 1998-November 1 2002: Most of the world believes Saddam is producing and possesses WMD after the UN Weapons inspectors were kicked out and wants to do something to enforce those resolutions, get inspectors back in and prevent Iraq from having WMD.

2. November 1 2002 - Jan 1 2003: IWR vote and UN SEC RES 1441 vote http://www.un.org/Depts/unmovic/documents/1441.pdf , Iraq accepts them both and allows weapons inspectors back into the country who arrive before the end of November and they begin their inspections.

3. Jan 2 2003 - March 7 2003: Weapons Inspector Reports flow in and no banned weapons are found. EVERY suspected site is searched at least once, some more than once. Nothing is found. The inspectors say they have no reason to think weapons are being moved around and they feel they are getting adequate cooperation, particularly by the end.

It is during period 3 that France changes their mind and decides not to become part of the war after seeming to be an enthusiastic supporter. It is also period 3 that shows what Bushco are really up to, the weapons inspectors and all of that have nothing to do with their plans, they were a smokescreen, one of many dishonest tactics they used.