Abstract

Did Iraq still possess weapons of mass destruction before Operation Iraqi Freedom? The group of inspectors has as yet been unable to produce a definite answer to this question, which has raised such controversy, before, during, and after the war. One thing does however appear to be certain: the situation was far more complex than either the supporters or opponents of war had initially thought. And it is not unrealistic to predict that it will take years for the whole truth to come to light. If more important destruction of weapons occurred before the war than expected, then one must question the reason why Saddam Hussein never produced evidence for these and why he opposed such stiff resistance to interviews of Iraqi scientists. And if fears concerning chemical and biological weapons were unfounded, then one need to be able to account for what happened to the precursors, the stocks of agents, the special munitions, as well as for the methods of destruction. In the absence of convincing evidence, one can only leave open the possibility of alternative scenarios.

Thérèse Delpech is a Research Fellow at the CERI and a Commissar at the UNMOVIC.