"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote:

The Iraqis accepted the requirement to verify destruction of their
WMD prior to any destruction of them.

Any such requirement would have been rammed down their throat,
probably with no supporting adendums detailing what constitutes
acceptible verification.

For what reason would they destroy them but maintain the
appearance that they had not been destroyed?

How about to give surrounding hostile countries the reason to think
that Iraq just might have some shread of defensive capability?

Please explain why a shipment of 14 scud missles from North Korea was
allowed to be delivered to Yemen before the Iraq invasion started?
Yemen. You know, where the USS Cole was almost sunk? The country
filled with radicals and terrorists? Why did the US allow the
Yemenese to take possession of those WMD's? The ship was boarded by
"coalition" forces. It could have been taken out to sea and sunk.
Instead the US allowed REAL WMD's to fall into the hands of REAL
terrorists.