I stumbled across [1] this on the CIA website. It is the official report on what was found in Iraq and makes for interesting reading. I have yet to finish it but it seams that Saddam was not producing NBC weapons yet but was in the process of developing the delivery system. The confusion seams come from his constant hinting that he had these capabilities to various bodies as he wanted Iran to think he did or they would most likely invade him. Also a lot of scientists claimed they were working on things that pointed to the productions of big weapons however much of this research had been cancelled or was not as advanced as claimed. So basically this ended up being a premtive attack. This then raises the question of whether this kind of action is justified or not.

Overall it seams that since the sanctions were imposed on Iraq by the UN they were adhered to less and less and had this continued any longer then perhaps a few years latter there may have been middle eastern nuclear turf war. Given the intelligence presented here, invading seams like a good idea even if they found no functional weapons and only bits, (bit like busting the guy who all the drug dealers says is the Big Cheese and then finding that he was only selling the bags they used to distribute it).

Of course there is the “Do you trust the CIA?” question….

North Korea (Democratic Peoples Rrepublic of Korea to its friends) could be next target since hating the US is the national past time, motto and party line. China may also become dangerous as the government is weakening and nuking the US navy and major manufacturing centres may be in their interest.