[VRM]

RDorman and Evan,
The ISG and UN inspectors reports shows no evidence of any kind of current WMD manufacture in Iraq, and no evidence that anything was moved (including sattelite photos). What evidence do you have to the contrary? They did find old (useless) chemical weapon delivery systems. They also found other conventional weapons systems that were out of spec with what was allowed. The destruction of those made significant progress before we invaded.

Hussein did not trust his neighbours (mostly Iran, but also Syria to an extent) - they were a big reason why he wanted WMD in the first place. If he wanted WMD to possibly use against his neighbours he is certainly not going to send those same WMD to them for safekeeping. And he did have access to plenty of cash, but he obviously did not trust his neighbours enough to keep him safe even with the bribe potential.

If anything does happen it will be from a different country making its own WMD. And there is a good chance that they will be making their own WMD because they already know what we do to a country that does not have WMD.

Mike,
I've been thinking about that for a few days now. I've not come up with an answer that fits perfectly, but I have a few possibilities:
1. Israel - They were making a strike (practise or real) on Iran, got detected, dropped tanks/ordnance and ran. Problem is - it is the wrong direction for Bushehr. It is not that far out of the way to get to Tehran or Natanz, though. Syrias ambassador has said that Israel hit nothing, but dropped munitions and tanks and left. Taking all sides comments (or lack thereof) into account this one seems to make the most sense to me.

2. North Korea - they may have been selling bits of their nuke program to Syria. It was hit and destroyed, and the US offered NK cash/loans/whatever to stop selling stuff to others. SIlence was part of the deal. And Syria does not want world opinion to turn more against them, so they are being quiet too.

4. US - We supplied Israel with suspected co-ordinates of a weapons/WMD cache, and those co-ordinates turned out to be wrong. We don't need any more intelligence screw-ups, so we agree (with Israel) to keep it quiet.

Steve