It turns out there was a significant amount of WMDs discovered in Iraq, if 500 WMD-filled munitions counts as "significant" (duh):
Reading from a declassified portion of a report by the National Ground Intelligence Center, a Defense Department intelligence unit, [Senator Rick] Santorum said: "Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq's pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist."
He added that the report warns about the hazards that the chemical weapons could still pose to coalition troops in Iraq.
"The purity of the agents inside the munitions depends on many factors, including the manufacturing process, potential additives and environmental storage conditions. While agents degrade over time, chemical warfare agents remain hazardous and potentially lethal," Santorum read from the document.
Notice that the argument "against" is now changing from "Iraq didn't have any WMDs" to "Iraq didn't have a current program." But I doubt that most Americans will be so easily fooled: The Administration's argument (and that of nearly every other interested country) at the time was that Saddam had chemical and biological weapons and also that Iraq was still producing some of these weapons. (They also argued that Saddam probably didn't have nuclear weapons, but he did have a nascent program that lacked only the fissile material, which he was "[seeking] to acquire.")
We have, so far as I know, no proof that Iraq was producing any WMDs at the time of the invasion in 2003, but here, now, is the first public acknowledgement that a substantial amount of chemical and biological weapons have in fact been found. This report is about old weapons in a somewhat degraded condition, but still dangerous and in substantial quantity. (Duelfer calls it "old news," but it's news to me and it makes a difference. But "Duh," again.) Iraq did indisputably have WMDs, and so the "Bush Lied" meme fails at its bullshit-fertilized root.
I also notice that these old, degraded munitions had more value as weapons of terrorism than in actual military applications. But, I suppose, that's always been the case; chemical and biological weapons have always been a bitch to deploy effectively, even when in good condition.
Update: The gentlemen (?) at The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler have more, as does Jay.
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