Kenny, to answer your last point first, North Korea, for all its faults, communism, crazy leader, repression et al, has not invaded anyone since 1950. It is certainly a worry, but one thing at a time. Iraq has invaded Iran [1980] and Kuwait in 1990, and fired Scud missiles into Israel.
The West encourage the Iraqis to invade Iran to get rid of that Anatolia chap.

Iraq also had WMD's and contacts with terrorist groups, which I will attempt to cover as briefly as possible. [a] we know Saddam and his sadistic crazy sons and monsters like "Chemical Ali" used chemical weapons on the Kurds. It has been admitted that they had a stockpile left, some said 10,000 litres. It has never been accounted for. I don't think Saddam destroyed it do you? The US weapons inspectors do now and so did Hans Blinx team. The Iraqs simply did not document it very well.

[b[ UN Security Council Resolution 1441. passed unanimously in November 2002 recognised" ... the threat Iraq's non-compliance with Council resolutions and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and long range missiles poses to international peace and security." The UN was convinced. Yes they were convinced with sexed up and down right doggey intelligence.

[c] ALP Spokesman Kevin Rudd told Parliament on September 17, 2002 that Saddam " has invaded his neaghbours in complete vioation of International Law, and he is in possession of weapons of mass destruction which in the past he has used against his own people and his neighbours. "None of these matters are the subject of dispute."
The Labor Party was convinced.

[d] Chief Weapons Inspector David Kay stated" Iraq's WMD programs spanned more than two decades, involved thousands of people, billions of dollars, and were elaborately shielded by security and deception operations, that continued even beyond the end of "Operation Freedom".
In response to a question from CNN as to whether the was was worthwhile, Kay responded:"Absolutely, and not just for the Iraq's. "I think the world is far safer. "I actually Saddam and Iraq were becoming more dangerous to us, not less dangerous".
Kay was convinced.
David Kay to the US senate “Let me begin by saying, we were almost all wrong, and I certainly include myself here”

[e[ The Flood Report into Australia's Intelligence Services reported: "The Iraqi leadership retained the ambition and intent to have a WMD program [and there there was indeed a weapons program, if not stockpiles of weapons.." [f] The Butler report into British Intelligence reported that Iraq "... had the strategic intention of resuming the the pursuit of prohibited weapons program, including, if possible, its nuclear program...."Flood and Butler were convinced.

[g] Kay's successor Charles Duelfer reported that Irag was necotiating with North Korea for missiles, and its chemical wapons program could be reactivated at short notice. Duelfer was convinced.

Connections with terrorist organistations [1] In 1994 the deputy director of IIS {the Iraqi Intelligence Service} Faruq Hijazi met Osama bin-laden in Sudan. [2] Iraqi vice-president reportedly met Osama bin-laden in Baghdad in January 1998 and bin-laden's deputy Ayman al Zawahiri in February 1998. The purpose of these meetings was to establish terrorist training camps in an-Nasiriyah and Iraqi Kurdistan.
Rumsfelt met with Bin-Laden as well does that mean he was in with him?

Most people who thought the intel was either being spun or fabricated generally had to resign to make their concerns know the most high profile one was former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook in his March 2003 resignation speech:
Iraq probably has no weapons of mass destruction in the commonly understood sense of that term -- namely, a credible device capable of being delivered against strategic city targets. It probably does still have biological toxins and battlefield chemical munitions. But it has had them since the 1980s when the US sold Saddam the anthrax agents and the then British government built his chemical and munitions factories.
Many others made the assumption is that Saddam had the WMD, but that they weren't very dangerous.
Australian Intelligence officer Andrew Wilkie in March 2003:

Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program is, I believe, genuinely contained. There is no doubt they have chemical and biological weapons, but their program now is disjointed and limited. It's not a national WMD program like they used to have.
Again, the WMDs are there, just not much of a threat. And so on, with the most skeptical voice coming from Russian President Vladimir Putin saying in October 2002 that it's unlikely that any weapons exist, but even so, the Russians worry that they might. So everyone thought they were there, but only the Bush administration thought they were an imminent existential threat to the United States.


There are other instances I could quote, but I recall reading that a terrorist training camp had been found in Northern Iraq in the first days of the war,

Iraq hates America. Osama bin-laden hates America. It's logical that they would get together, especially if Osama pledged that no activities would be launched against Saddam as captured documents reveal. What documents ?

Kenny, you asked me to read up on this, but I don't think any of it has helped your case.
I don’t think you looked hard to find views that didn’t support yours have another look. I’ll give you this link to a right wing think tank the very famous Cato group. http://www.cato.org/dailys/08-19-02.html

Kenny, sorry I have taken so long to reply.
[1] David Kay. In the evidence given to the US Senate on Jan 28 Kay mentions that Jacques Chirac and German Intelligence both believed that Iraq had WMD's. Two more convinced. Surely they would have had different sources from the U.S. However, as Kay stated, they were "wrong"..
However, if you read his statement on October 2 before the House and Senate Select Committees on Intelligence, you see that what he is saying that we expected to find stacks of WMD's on the ground, and we were "wrong" inasmuch as we didn't find any. They had been removed or destroyed,and paperwork and computer records destroyed. But we did find evidence of the programs which made them. Kay's report which printsout as 9 and a bit pages says this:
"Saddam, at least as judged by those scientists and other insiders who worked in his military-industrial programs, had not given up his aspirations and intentions to acquire weapons of mass destruction. ...... " Several of these officials acknowledge receiving inquiries since 2000 from Saddam and his sons about how long it would take to either restart CW production or make available chemical weapons."
I uggest you read the side www.cia.gov.cia/public_affairs/speeches/2003/david kay It's a mass of detailed information, [much too long to attempt here] and might give you a different view of the WMD matter.

I have had a look at cato website with its 10 reasons for not invading.
Most of them, such as "High Casualties" , "Spiralling oil prices" and "Isolated Diplomatically" did not occur. "Increased al-Qaeda recruitment is a possibility, but I think the Israel-Palestine situation is the main trigger they have used, Also our assistance to East Timor is used as an excuse to fan hatred of the West. Any excuse will do.
Saddam certainly helped ME terrorists by financial rewards to Palestinian suicide bombers' families, and the 500 suicide bomb kits found in an Iraqi school were probably bound for Hamas or other terrorists groups there.

.
Running out of words. Will add another post later.

Re links to al-Qeda, [1] Iraq's Intelligence explosives expert Brigadier Salim al-Ahmed visited Osama bin-laden's farm near Khartoum in 1995 and 1996 with Mani abd-al-Rashid al-Tikriti, Director of Iraqi Intelligence.

[2] Saddam first sought al-Qaeda's support after the 1991 Gulf War, through his connections with Sudan and Afghanistan. The leader of the National Islamic Front, Hussan al-Turabi arranged the connection. In 1990 an Islamic coup in Sudan had created a safe haven for al-Qaeda to build and organise.

[3]In Kuala Lumpur in January 2000, Ahmed Hikmat Shakir a customs official at the airport [who records later proved was a lieutenant-colonel in Saddam's Fedayeen] greeted one of the 9/11 hijackers Khalid al-Midhar and accompanied him to a 3-day meeting with other 9/11 planners. Also present was the mastermind of the bombing of the USS Cole, Tawfiz al Atash.

[4] The Czech Government claims that 9/11 bomber Mohamed Atta met Iraqi Intelligence agent Zhmed al-Ani who had diplomatic status at the Iraqi Embassy. They planned to recruit militants to blow up Radio Free Europe, but their plan foiled.

[5] The captured documents I mentioned last time were referred to in a Memorandum from the Undersecretary of Defense for Police Douglas J. Feith to the Senate Intelligence Committee. It was corroborated from multiple sources including captured al-Qaeda, Iraqi defectors and Iraqi Intelligence.

[6] Former counter terrorist adviser to President Clinton, Mansoor Ijaz has given evidence that Iraq trained al-Qaeda terrorists in explosives and WMD's gave them safe haven, training camps and financial support.

Re the Iraq-Iran war, no doubt the US was glad to see Iran clobbered, but I don't buy the complicity claim.

To sum up, some people would not endorse this war no matter how strong the evidence. Some people even today consider the Korean War and the First Gulf War unjustifiable . I believe that Iraq had WMD's they had time and opportunity to dismantle, transport to Syria, bury or destroy these weapons. They had the capability to re-activate these programs, and the connections to terrorist groups which created the unthinkable - WMD's in al-Qaeda and other terrorist hands.