The bigger picture: WMD and Saddam...

Per CNN, Official: No WMD stockpiles in Iraq, Saddam still a threat, head of the Iraq Survey Group says. From the article,

Contradicting the main argument for a war that has cost more than 1,000 American lives, the top U.S. arms inspector reported Wednesday that he found no evidence that Iraq produced any weapons of mass destruction after 1991. He also concluded that Saddam Hussein's weapons capability weakened during a dozen years of U.N. sanctions before the U.S. invasion last year.

From FoxNews, Report: No Iraq WMD Production After '91,

The chief U.S. arms inspector in Iraq has found no evidence of weapons of mass destruction production by Saddam Hussein's regime after 1991. But the final report by Charles Duelfer concluded that, although the weapons stockpiles were destroyed, Saddam’s government was looking to begin a WMD program again.

Was this known in 1991? No. When did the U.S. invade Iraq? March, 2003. When did Baghdad fall? April, 2003. It is now October, 2004. If it took the chief U.S. arms inspector a year and a half after the post-Saddam reign to determine that no evidence of WMD production exists, then how long would it have taken UN inspectors stuck in the quagmire of an Iraq run by Saddam? Indeed, one wonders if UN inspectors would have ever gotten the chance to come to a conclusion and issue a report of their findings. Of course... that's now a moot point.