I don’t know why everybody always seems to have expected massive stockpiles of chem/bio weapons in Iraq. It’s the ~programs~ that matter, not the stockpiles.
Chemical and Bio weapons are not the sort of thing that anybody would ever create a very large peacetime inventory. They’re a logistics and custodial nightmare, and they have a relatively short shelf-life compared to ordinary ordnance. They’re very much in the make-it-as-you-need-it department.
The Duelfer (sp?) report was VERY clear that they had found clandestine facilities and personnel for these programs. Game, set, match. That’s what mattered. That there weren’t massive stockpiles was that only thing the media picked up from the report, but it’s also the thing that doesn’t matter very much.
Whatever stockpiles they had went to Syria. Some things may have been quietly disposed in desert ammo depots in order to keep Al Queda from searching for them. But it was Saddam’s programs, and his willingness to use them— and share them with terror groups that made this war not only necessary but the ONLY moral choice.
Good observation.