The United States has stopped searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, according to Intelligence officials.

They say the chief US investigator, Charles Duelfer, is not planning to return to the country.

In a previous report, Mr Duelfer said there had been no stockpiles of chemical or biological weapons at the time of the US-led invasion.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4169107.stm

What’s your guy’s reaction to this?
I personally feel let down. As someone who opposed the War in the first place, I hoped in the back of my mind we would find weapons we were told to believe existed.

It is unfortunate for the current administration from a PR standpoint, but I never felt it mattered if there were or were not WMD.

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lambaste me not

For me the WMDs themselves were a secondary issue...they were not the reason I supported the war.

I supported the war because Saddam had a history of not cooperating with inspectors. If he refused to cooperate, it is reasonable to assume he was hiding somthing. We tried diplomacy for a very long time and it was not working. Even in hindsight I cannot see an acceptable alternative. Taking despots at their word sets a bad precedent at the very least.

I feel better knowing there will be one less nation friendly to terrorists in the world. I feel better knowing that there are thousands of people that will not be dying in Saddam's prisons and Torture chambers in the coming years. And finally, I feel better knowing that there is now zero chance Saddam will ever be able to acquire the weapons necessary to strike at us or our allies.

See in my opinion the WMD’s were the #1 issue. On Dec. 30, 2002, IAEA inspectors monitoring 8,000 spent fuel rods were kicked out of North Korea. So North Korea wasn’t exactly cooperating with inspectors either. The fact that Saddam wasn’t cooperating wasn’t a good enough reason to go to war because at least the inspectors did have some freedom of movement where as in North Korea among other countries weren’t cooperating at all. You can also argue that North Korea and other countries who aren’t cooperating with the world community have human rights violations as well.

This has all been discussed ad nausium. I'll let SS take over if he wants.

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lambaste me not

We should have done so thing then too. Bombing their reactors would have solved the problem in the short term.

The main difference between Iraq and NK is China...China has a great deal of influence over NK, and has incentives to cooperate...and force NK cooperation as well. That is one of the reasons NK was not as dire a situation.

If I had to pick between the two, I would say NK is less volitile than Saddam's Iraq was. NK has not actually invaded anyone in a long time.

Freedom of movement when? See, thats the problem...if you only cooperate when you feel like it, then it really isnt cooperation, now is it?

We gave him multiple chances to comply. He refused. We could not take him at his word, so the only alternatives were to cross our fingers and hope for the best or to invade and remove the possibility of WMDs completely. We chose the latter. I still think it was the best choice.

No argument here. If it comes down to choosing between the two, then Saddam was slightly more of a threat then NK. That does not mean NK was not a threat.

..I thought the weapons had been moved to Syria and Lebanon?? Is that not the case? Isn't the ISG getting ready to go searching in Syria and Lebanon? Or has that been abandoned??

Man on man...I sure had some money on the fact that the weapons will be found by Jr's inaugration for his second term.

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"Only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet."

On to Syria!

I don't care about the WMD's. IMO the real goal all along was to establish a Democracy in the middle east.

People who were back here when WMDs were the issue are now going WMDs were only a secondary, nay, tertiary reason for the war.

I can't help but find this amusing.

You're not alone. I also find all the new (and increasingly desperate) reasons they invent for supporting an obviously pointless war hilarious. Next up: Saddam parked in handicapped spaces! Saddam doubled dipped his chips!

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“Been living here in galus for a life too long" - Matisyahu