I have no doubts that Saddam Hussein was a tyrant and would love to have rebuilt his "empire." But the simple truth is that the sanctions and no-fly zones were doing their job as intended. They kept Saddam in hiding and unable to rebuild his military. He spent most of the past ten years building palaces and erecting statues because that's about all he get away with.

Clinton's decision to send missiles into Iraq in 1998 served as an effective punctuation point and Saddam got the message in spades. He realized that he could never escape from the thumb of American military power. He went underground and kept quiet. Is was a very effective tactic on Clinton's part that didn't cost very much and put no American soldiers at risk.

As for the "Office of Special Plans fiasco," I have no doubt that American intelligence operatives were pressured to cook the books to help the President justify a war he couldn't justify. The "case" for war was a gross exaggeration. To date, no one had been held accountible. The only ones paying the price are American taxpayers, over 12,000 wounded soldiers and the families of 1,708 American soldiers who have lost their lives in this unforgiveable adventure.