[what's up]

That's the theory, or the justification, or the excuse, but so far as I can see it really doesn't hold up in reality

I'm not really sure what you mean. Do you think Saddam wasn't making everyone think he had WMD?

Was he not shooting at our planes in the no-fly zone, abusing food for oil, didn't he use chemical WMD on his people, wasn't he toying with the inspectors?

Is it your opinion that someone who had invaded Iraq to try to get dominion in the Gulf and was now terrorizing the world should have continued his rebellion forever?

[x]

I don't know exactly what the situation was at the time or how many of those things were still going on at the time.

Most of what I've seen suggests that the "imminent threat" rhetoric didn't reflect the actual situation at the point when we went in.

My point, though, was that regime change was one of our goals for going in, and regime change involves nation building.

Washington Times article: Bush a convert to nation building