I have an acquaintance that I met through a good friend. This guy was heavily involved in the search for WMD’s in Iraq. I believe his stories, they match released information very well. It is his contention that Saddam was being told by his own staff that the WMD’s were being developed and the factories were built etc; when the truth was that very little if anything was actually being done. Saddam just went along with it probably due to the big guy persona.
It is also this guy's contention that the CIA in particular told W what they thought he wanted to hear about Saddam.
Saddam was very much like Trump, they both believed a fiction greater than themselves....and they got others to believe it too.
In 1998, Saddam kicked out the weapons inspectors which was a violation of the cease fire agreement. From that point until 9/11, Saddam claims that he had eliminated all of what he had last acknowledged in 1993, despite not eliminating any of it during the first seven years of the cease fire.
Should we have taken him at his word? Or should we have verified? Bush chose to verify. He convinced Saddam to allow UN inspectors back in to see if everything was as before. The final report coming from these inspectors (Scott Ritter included) was that they could not account for everything, and that Saddam was not allowing them the access they had been promised.
Keep in mind that 9/11 was a game changer. The bottom line with Iraq is that they were in violation of the cease fire agreement and had been so for quite some time. This first and foremost was the reason for invading, as the Authorization for Use of Force in Iraq clearly detail. Furthermore, Saddam was also a sponsor or terrorism which was our primary target.