[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

After playing the hapless and useless UN for the fools they are for years, Saddam moved the WMD stocks to Syria when he finally realized the GW was going to unleash Hell upon him. BTW, there were MANY reasons for hitting Iraq. The WMD issue was 10th or so on a long list.

[Huck]

The Bush Administration says that the intel re: WMD was wrong. They made specific claims with photos and everything that they now say turned out to be mistaken. And no one has any proof that WMDs were moved to Syria. It's speculation. As for where WMD was on the list of reasons, c'mon. It was top 2 easily, the other top reason being his sponsorship of terrorism. It was the combination of his sponsorship and allegiance to terrorism with his quest for (and supposed possession of) various forms of WMD that justified pre-emption. His allegiance to Al Quaida, by the way, also turned out to be minimal. They met a few times. At least, that's all that's been proved as far as I know.

So, after the top tier reasons--sponsorship/support of terror coupled with WMD possession and development--you had the more idealistic Wilsonian stuff: democracy transforming the region, blah blah. That's where the nation-building flip flop comes in. So please. Get real.

[Huck]

Addendum: the other big Wilsonian rationale (more of a benefit statement really) was that, try not to laugh, that it would bolster and preserve the credibility of the UN. Saddam had broken a bunch of resolutions, so now the UN had to act. League of Nations, world gubmint. All that good stuff.