You're projecting current knowledge backwards again.

The only reason we know anything at all about the status of WMD in Iraq is because we took the place over, and went over it for months with hundreds of personnel unobstructed by Saddam, the military, the police, or anything else.

Prior to the war, the U.N.'s proclamations about WMD were, and ought to have been, taken in light of their previous abysmal record. There was no objective way to unquestionably confirm what they were saying, and intelligence was telling us several things at once, not all of them mutually consistent.

So, if the guide says the cave is empty, and has no bears, one has to remember that the last few times he said the cave was empty, you got your ass chewed off by a bear. So, do you go into the cave with or without a gun?

And if the cave is empty after all--this time--does this make you an idiot?

Hindsight: 20/20

There is no proof or finding or even definitive evidence offered. Nor also any evidence or finding of missiles not found and destroyed by the UN- just an expressed confidence that " if OIF had not intervened, would have resulted in the production of missiles with ranges at least up to 1000 km, well in excess of the UN permitted range of 150 km."

So where are the missiles that the UN did not find? Eh Tom?

Allow me to refresh your memory a bit.

To make a long story short, Iraq was attempting to buy missile technology off of North Korea, something that you apparently missed in the interim report. This has been proven. The Nodong missile involved has a range of 1,300-kilometers, which is quite a bit more than the 150 km Iraq was permitted, or the 190 km range of the illegal missiles Iraq cheerfully sacrificed to keep Blix happy.

It's interesting that you have decided that any weapons violation of U.N. sanctions is okay as long as it doesn't involve WMD. Is this why you skim over so much of the report when you read it?