I made an incontrovertible point about the hypocrisy of the Left in supporting the enemies of Israel (or America for that matter), nations and groups which almost universally spit on the human rights values trumpeted constantly by the Left in the U.S.

There is something seriously wrong when a supposed feminist or gay rights proponent supports the Palestinians over Israel, or any of the other Arab nations, especially with the vehemence that they do.

I have no idea how you arrived at your response based on what I wrote.

Now, getting past the flying spit sections...

And by the way: show me the supposed affirmative statements or documents from 1998- or is this another Space Alien claim. [In fact, I bet it is]. I bet we will end up with a state department or CIA whitepaper saying to the effect "it is likely that" or "it is reasonable to assume".

Geez, the way you put it, you'd think I was the only person on Earth who thought Saddam had WMD. Heck, you practically call me an anomalist.

Finding stuff that will get over your bar of proof is not easy, since you seem to discount any data from a source which can be proven to be in opposition to Saddam's regime, or that has been proven to have made at least one error. This leaves out CIA intelligence, British intelligence, any statement from a member of an opposition group, escapees, expatriots, former Iraqi military, or anyone else who might have an axe to grind with Saddam. Otherwise, there's quite a bit.

I notice you utterly ignore the statements from various U.S. politicians and others in that time frame that I have posted several times.

I'll lay this on the line for now:

Read Resolution 1441, passed in November of 2002, again. Some selected excerpts:

Recognizing the threat Iraq’s non-compliance with Council resolutions and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles poses to international peace and security,

...Deploring the fact that Iraq has not provided an accurate, full, final, and complete disclosure, as required by resolution 687 (1991), of all aspects of its programmes to develop weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles with a range greater than one hundred and fifty kilometres, and of all holdings of such weapons, their components and production facilities and locations, as well as all other nuclear programmes, including any which it claims are for purposes not related to nuclear-weapons-usable material,

...Deploring the absence, since December 1998, in Iraq of international monitoring, inspection, and verification, as required by relevant resolutions, of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles, in spite of the Council’s repeated demands that Iraq provide immediate, unconditional, and unrestricted access to the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), established in resolution 1284 (1999) as the successor organization to UNSCOM, and the IAEA, and regretting the consequent prolonging of the crisis in the region
and the suffering of the Iraqi people,

Deploring also that the Government of Iraq has failed to comply with its commitments pursuant to resolution 687 (1991) with regard to terrorism, pursuant to resolution 688 (1991) to end repression of its civilian population and to provide access by international humanitarian organizations to all those in need of assistance in Iraq, and pursuant to resolutions 686 (1991), 687 (1991), and 1284 (1999) to return or cooperate in accounting for Kuwaiti and third country nationals wrongfully detained by Iraq, or to return Kuwaiti property wrongfully seized by Iraq...

To keep it simple, we'll just overlook the fact that grossly violating the terms mentioned in 1441, which were a condition of the cease-fire in the first Gulf War, is in itself a legitimate provocation to military action. Notice how fast THAT got shoveled over by the Left in the past months?

But one would find it hard, based on this document, to conclude that the Security Council firmly believed that Iraq has absolutely no WMD or connections to terrorism at this time.

To put it a bit more bluntly: if the nations making up the Security Council, which passed this unanimously, did not believe Iraq had either WMD or links to terrorism, this document has no point.

To take it a bit further, what the HELL would they need a U.N. inspection program for if the U.N. and the nations of the Security Council were convinced that there were no WMD in Iraq at all?