If you read the actual statements made by the president and the whole adminstration during the year leading up to the war
finding weapons of mass destruction was
never the main justification. That is a bald faced lie by the president's political opponents and their cohorts in our press.
The explicit (to anyone who can read or listen) justification for going to war was just what you stated, that is we could not afford to wait until Saddam had nuclear weapons in hand because (like the answer Roosevelt got from his secretary when he asked her opinion of what Hitler would do if he had a bomb that could destry a city) he would use it!
If you read the actual statements made by the president and the whole adminstration during the year leading up to the war finding weapons of mass destruction was never the main justification. ===
Sir I red the Powell speech in UN. There was lot of slides, airial photos and so on. The main thought was Saddam has WMD he didn't disarm so he didn't comply UN resolution to disarm. Hence UN have to authorize to use of force to disarm Saddam. It was justification of war isn't it?
This speech happened half year ago. No one forget it.
It was mistake.
So as claim of Tony Blair that Saddam ready to bomb UK with WMD during about 40 minutes. It wasn't true either.
It wasn't media who did those mistakes. But of cause media dissiminated them very widely.