In March, I listened to my government convince the nation and its party that there would be "absolutely no doubt" that WMDs would be found, basing the whole war's raison d'etre on the fact that the government had inside information that they wished we could all see. I listened to Tony Blair indeed, stand in front of the nation, saying "you have got to trust me, weapons of mass destruction will be found. We have the proof".

Today, I read this:

Britain back-tracked on the contentious issue of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction yesterday when the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, was forced to concede that hard evidence might never be uncovered.
He said it was "not crucially important" to find them, because the evidence of Iraqi wrongdoing was overwhelming.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story...956262,00.html

"Not crucially important"? Do I look stupid? Any tough question asked of the government pre-war was answered with a statement based on the existance of WMD. No argument.

Saddam is a murderous dictator (sickeningly proven yesterday). But there are handfuls of murderous dicators around the world. The important issue that set him apart from his fellow despots was that he was a tyrant with the ability to threaten the Western world with WMDs at a moment's notice. Is it not the case that now WMDs are "not crucially important", he is just another one of the World's evil dictators?


If there was no proof of WMDs at all (as pointed out by Mr Straw), I don't see why dimplomacy should have been discarded so quickly, and brute force used so willingly.

If Saddam was the main focus of war, where is the proof that he has been killed? (I believe, and hope, he is buried under that Bahgdadi Restaurant - but who knows...)

The financial gains generated from this war look very suspicious. The links between ABB construction and several leaders of the Coalition think-tank look suspicious. Are all you pro-war lobbyists out there really quite comfortable about this questionably amoral boost to the economy?

Has the Coalition taken its eye off the ball somewhat - Al Quaeda just annialated more Coalition civilians in one day in Riyad than Saddam did since 1993.

Open debate I can accept. Being lied to I cannot...