When President Bush was asked why he thought there
is such disagreement with his ideas of what is necessary
to disarm Iraq, he pointed out that the Security Council
had unanimously approved resolution 1441 last fall.
But last fall the threat posed by Iraq appeared far more
serious than it does today. The Bush administration then
was citing a UN report which said that Iraq could produce
nuclear weapons in six months. The Bush administration then
was saying that Iraqi defector, Hussein Kamel, had reported
that Iraq had hidden large quantities of weapons of mass
destruction. The Bush administration then was saying that an
Al Qaeda representative had met with an Iraqi official in
Prague.

Today alarm regarding these threats is much diminished, and for
good reason. The UN report  never existed.  Documents reveal
that defector Kamel told the CIA that Iraq had destroyed all its
chemical and biological weapons in 1991. The Czech Republic
has denied that there ever was any evidence that an Al Qaeda
representative had met with an Iraqi official in Prague. Numerous
other alarms of the Bush administration regarding Iraq have also
been shown to be false.

Meanwhile other dangers, such as North Korean nuclear weapon
development, have become more real. Concerns regarding the
costs and consequences of occupation of Iraq grow. To many,
President Bush's campaign of false alarms and his references
(nearly twenty) to the attacks of September 11th  during the press
conference do not inspire confidence.