Once more on WMDs 

Once more on WMDs

OK, OK: Maybe I was wrong. (See also here.)

Maybe the truth is that Saddam pretended to have WMDs, or exaggerated how many he had--maybe even used agents to spread these lies--because he wanted the U.S. to think an invasion would immediately trigger the use of chemical or biological weapons. (Link from Slate).

It's hard to believe this mega-power, the U.S., with such great intelligence resources, could be so clueless. Now there are suggestions that Saddam was clueless, too--his experts had stopped building or acquiring WMDs, perhaps ten years earlier, and he may not have realized just how defenceless he was. (Link from NY Post refers to a Time magazine article, which I can't find). So this becomes another potential justification for the Bush/Blair group: we were no more clueless about WMDs in Iraq than Saddam himself.

Some critics of the war thought the threat that Saddam might deploy WMDs was a good reason not to go in, and it may have been a reason why the Pentagon was insistent on moving as quickly as possible.