In reply to:

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1. Iraq possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) in the past and cannot demonstrate conclusively in the present that they do not possess WMD capabilities today.

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The real problem with this point, "they can't prove they don't have the weapons", is that effectively, they can't prove they don't have the weapons. It seems that every time an inspectors report comes back negative, the US response is "You aren't looking hard enough/in the right place" No proof ever seems to be forthcoming from the so-called intelligence services as to where these weapons are supposed to be hidden, just comments that they are sure they exist.

If the entire country could be conclusively scanned from top to bottom with no results, you get the impression the US would still be saying, "Well, you just didn't put as much effort into looking as Iraq did into hiding the things". There doesn't seem to be any way at all of satisfying someone who has determined that there WILL be a war and they're just looking for a vaguely justifiable excuse. I guess the US is working on the principle that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but since this is essentially an unproveable scenario it means there is no way to avoid conflict.

pca