The term "links" is being grossly misrepresented here by those wanting to believe and claim that Saddam and Al Qaeda were working together. This simply isn't so. All the commission is doing is acknowledging that there had been a handful of ephemeral contacts between the two, none of which resulted in a collaborative relationship. In fact, it appears the Iraqi government pretty ignored efforts by Al Qaeda to establish a relationship.

What's interesting is that the 9/11 commission found greater links between Al Qaeda and the Iranian and Pakistani governments. Coupled with the fact that the Iranians were actually working on developing nuclear weapons and Pakistan already has them, one might argue that the case for war against Iran and Pakistan, using George Bush's excuse, was far greater than any reasons claimed for Iraq. Of course, we know that waging war against either Iran or Pakistan would be just plain silly - which makes the case for war against Iraq even sillier.