While we're on the subject of requiring binding UN resolutions to be complied with by member states [which is the underlying rationale for why we can/should go to war with Iraq anytime soon in about half the posts to this thread so far], you have to look no further than the many binding resolutions that the UN has passed regarding Israel pulling out of occupied territories invaded 30+ years ago without justifcation.

This is a point which the US [& UK] governments and of course - Israel, constantly overlook and ignore while berating Iraq and other countries (e.g. North Korea) for acting in the same unilateral way and while at the same threatening this exact same sort of unilateral action that they are so concerned about other states doing said unilateral actions that they want to go to war unilaterally to protect us from such unilateral actions...

With the US - its always a case of "do as I [and/or my friends] say"
not "do as I [and/or my friends] do".

As far as Iraq goes, I and many others "westerners" would have to this to say to W and Blair, "show me the money"!
- if Iraq is full of WMD as you assert, then surely your vast intelligence organisations could come up with some decent evidence to show Sadam doing stuff illegally - in violation of UN resolutions.

If so, where is the evidence?

Its one thing to say Iraq is not complying with UN resolutions - its quite another to show it. Yes Iraq has to prove its innocence, and thus far they have a done a pretty good of job of trying to do that - even Blix hasn't really found anything seriously in breach of the rules yet.

One problem is that as most folks around the world (especially the Middle East/Arab states) see the US [and UK] acting like this:

W & Blair assume that no smoking WMD guns = Iraq is hiding stuff and not the equally plausible scenario - given the evidence to date and/or lack of contrary evidence - that Iraq has possibly destroyed some or all of the guns/WMD etc some time ago and Blix & Co haven't got around to reading or inspecting the paper work about this yet.

In any case the Middle East has one country with proven and known nuclear WMD, currently headed by someone that has shown much of the inhumanity Saddam and others of his ilk showed their own people and neighbouring states, and this country also ignores UN binding resolutions and that the US seems to not care about it...

What Colin Powell showed at the UN was simply a dog and pony sideshow.

I also note the comments from Blair about Iraq aiding and abetting terrorists.

The same can be said about Pakistan - its full of known Al Qaeda terrorists, yet the US is not asserting publicly at least, that Pakistan aids and abets terrorists.

And the underlying (and unclear to many perhaps) cause to all this is of course oil - if Iraq (and the Middle East) had no oil or other natural resources that anyone wanted, would the West care what happened in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia or any other Middle Eastern banana republics?

The true answer in that case would be "Probably not".

Nobody much cares about the conflicts in Djibouti, Ethiopia or Eritreia or any one of half a dozen African states - mostly because they don't have oil or much else we need in the West so we ignore the conflicts there and don't care if UN resolutions are ignored.

Anyone who asserts that the coming war in Iraq is not about oil is missing something very important - the whole Middle East is "about oil" whether we like it or not.

And for those countries like Israel that have no/few oil resources, the most important thing to fight about is fresh water.