Well, I think the war on Iraq was justified by the need to pre-emptively remove any hostile regime whose behavior indicates that it may be building WMD. (I wish the Bush administration would convey this argument more effectively, since it's a strong one.)
The little bit of circumstantial and vague evidence surrounding al-Ani actually weakens the case, at least politically; it would make the U.S. government look like it really needed that bit of evidence, but since the evidence is not on a firm footing, they would appear to be grasping at straws to find a justification for the war.
If Iraq even had one toe in the 9/11 conspiracy they needed to be taken out.
But the evidence isn't even one toe. Anyway, this policy has dangerous consequences. If carried out as you suggest, the precedent would tell a terrorist that they could get us to attack any country they wanted us to, by first scheduling a meeting with some consular official who is known as an undercover spook, and then setting off some bombs. For that matter, should we go to war with the USDA because Atta met with Johnelle Bryant?
As far as the anthrax is concerned, the evidence tells us that it was made in a bioweapons lab using an advancement of Soviet binder technology. It was either made in Russia, the US or Iraq in a sanctioned, government sponsored program by one of these nations. Whichever nation made it provides its own unique set of ramifications and consequences - all of them bad.
A very interesting point. What do you think we should do if it was made in Russia or in the U.S.? What do you view as the "ramifications and consequences" of those two possibilities?
If it was made in the US then it's a complete disaster. It means that an illegal program was in place making a new bioweapon formulation - strictly forbidden by the BW treaty. It further means that security at the site was so lax that it was able to get out. Obviously it means a full cover up has taken place and we'll never know the answers. The fact that some in the administration used the anthrax attack as justification for the war in the Iraq would make this perhaps the most cynical political move ever attempted by any US government in history.
If it came from Russia it means security at the Russian sites was lax enough for this stuff to walk out the door.