Easy. He'll spin it by ignoring it; that is to say, he'll focus on the fact that the people of Iraq are free from the tyranny of Hussein and are now well on their way towards self-rule by a democratically elected government.

And if he's lucky, that's what will be happening by that point.

I think I feel slightly queasy.

If the evil and incompetent naysayers at the UN who prevented an effective inspection regime from taking hold had not engaged in their perfidious behavior, we would have known this earlier. It's *their* fault we went to war, because they kept inspections from working.

I suspect he would take credit for the destruction of the WMDs, and then try to turn the focus onto the liberation of the people and their courageous struggle for democratic self-rule. Unfortunately, the ayatollahs will actually be running the country by then.

You guys are so cynical and pessimistic. :)

We'll find lots of illicit weapons, and well within a year.

Perhaps just before everyone takes to the polls?

It’s an interesting world we’re living in that the prospect of not finding that large numbers of dangerous weapons had been successfully concealed from the international community (and US intelligence), for a decade, by a pariah state under economic embargo and heavy surveillance, can be called pessimistic.

Are you saying that Iraq was transparent for the past decade? That we should have been able to pinpoint every mobile lab and underground facility?

And out of curiosity, does anyone here sincerely believe that Iraq had *no* illicit weapons during the past 12 years? That they defied repeated U.N. resolutions simply out of spite? They could easily have complied, within a matter of weeks after the Gulf War, and had the sanctions lifted. But they didn't. Any idea why?

Well, if I'm busy repressing my people, it's useful to have someone else to blame for the sanctions (it's not me, it's the US holding us down!), especially if the sanctions aren't hurting me. There's been a lot suggesting that the UN Oil for Food program was more accurately an oil for cash for Hussein program.

As for WMD, hard to say. Iraq probably did have them at some point in the last 12 years. Whether they had them when the US rolled in, not sure. If he had them, I don't understand why they wouldn't use them. It's also hard sometimes to prove a negative. Don't believe me? Prove you can't levitate (oh, you're not even trying).

I do find it amusing that the US, which once took the position of, "If the inspectors haven't found them by now, they'll never find them," is now taking the position of "Oh, we just need more time." Either way, it doesn't say much for our intelligence on the ground.

Pessimistic? Probably. Paranoid? Also probably. I'm just annoyed I can't flip ahead and see how things turn out.

No, Derek, I’m taking my partisan hat off and saying that if — considering all the looking that’s already been done, which is substantial — Iraq has nonetheless been able to hide significant quantities of WMD, then I’m very, very worried about all the countries that haven’t even been looked at.

And, getting to Jon’s point, and putting my partisan hat back on, I’m particularly worried if the only way we have to establish that a country isn’t hiding such weapons is to invade it. Then we really are living in a Ken Macleod world.