Barton Gellman of The Washington Post on Iraq's Arsenal Was Only on Paper: Since Gulf War, Nonconventional Weapons Never Got Past the Planning Stage:
Late last month, fresh evidence emerged on a very old question about Iraq's illegal arms: Did the Baghdad government, as it said, rid itself of all the biological arms it produced before 1991? The answer matters, because the Bush administration's most concrete prewar assertions about Iraqi germ weapons referred to stocks allegedly hidden from that old arsenal.
The new evidence appears to be a contemporary record, from inside the Iraqi government, of a pivotal moment in Baghdad's long struggle to shield arms programs from outside scrutiny. The document, written just after the defection of Saddam Hussein's son-in-law on Aug. 8, 1995, anticipates the collapse of cover stories for weapons that had yet to be disclosed. Read alongside subsequent discoveries made by U.N. inspectors, the document supports Iraq's claim that it destroyed all production stocks of lethal pathogens before inspectors knew they existed.
Does it matter if we went to war on a lie? Does it matter that hundreds of American men and women paid the ultimate price for that lie? Does it matter that thousands of our troops are wounded, missing limbs and emotionally scarred because of that lie? Does it matter that thousands of Iraqi citizens also paid the ultimate price for that lie?
You bet it does. People are dead. Their deaths were based on lies. I want accountability. I'm not stupid, so I harbor no false hope. All the American people will get are excuses. Excuses from the Administration. Excuses from the Pentagon. Excuses from the LINOs. Excuses from the neo-cons. Excuses from the warbloggers. Meanwhile, the dead are still dead.
For the vocal faction of the pro-war crowd, please remember it was you who breathlessly admonished, "Iraq has stockpiles of chemical weapons, they're a threat, so we have to go now." Which was almost always followed up by, "we've already waited for 12 years!!!!!" And the ever trusty, "Why are you taking Saddam's side?!?"
The blood of the dead is on your hands. And it isn't going to wash off.
The dead cry out for the evidence. There is none. What a waste.