1) claims of Terrorist ties
2) claims of sponsored terrorist camps
3) claims of tons of WMD
4) claims of their location
5) claims of ongoing nuclear projects.

While I will grant you that not much hard evidence has been presented on many of these things, many of these are still not as cut-and-dried false either as the Bush opposition would have you think. We've gone over all this before, and much of it is simply a case of "my shady sources are more believable than your shady sources are."

Iraq certainly had ties to Mideast terrorism, and there are definite threads leading to terrorism against U.S. interests as well. If there is a legitimate issue to bring up, it's that there are other Mideast nations, like Saudi Arabia and others, with equally if not stronger threads to such American terrorism, including 9/11, which have yet to be dealt with.

I also personally believe that Iraq had no ongoing nuclear weapons program at the time we invaded. Much of this controversy traces to a misstatement by Cheney that was clearer in context. But I also believe that they had the documentation, stored equipment and talent to ramp a program up the second the heat was off. They have done this before, and it is a known MO.

My take on it--just a guess based on common sense, no hard evidence whatsoever--is that the goods are squirrelled away in the deep desert or other hole where only Saddam and a few trusted members of his regime could find them. He had years to plan for this. I could hide tons of liquid nastiness in a few buried shipping containers. I could hide lab equipment, dried weapons, and documentation in much less. IMO, nobody is going to find them unless we find Saddam or the right people--or get people we already have in custody to talk--except by luck or sheer technological prowess and time. DEBKAfile claims they are in Syria, but while this is appealing, I can't believe that Saddam would place such things where other regimes might get at them if he were caught or killed. A pirate buries his treasure where nobody...but nobody...could easily find it if something happened to him.

IMO, right now I think it's a lot more important to nail down Saddam than his weapons. I think that capturing or provably killing Saddam would both open up the mouths of captured personnel (who have seen him come back before) and take much of the wind out of the sails of the Baathists currently attacking both our troops and Iraqis over there.