All of the headlines today are pointing to the just released Charles Duelfer report. And just as in the case of the 9/11 commitee report the MSM is focusing on one small part of the report that makes the Bush Administration look bad. In the report it says that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction. That simple....he didn't have them. And that is what the headlines say, and that is what reporters are questioning Bush and his administration about.

However I think that the report provides some of the most legitimate validation for the war in Iraq:

Starting in 1997 and peaking in 2001, he developed a giant smuggling operation that hinged on the establishment of "a network of Iraqi front companies, some with close relationships to high-ranking foreign-government officials," the report says.
Those officials, it says, "worked through their respective ministries, state-run companies and ministry-sponsored front companies to procure illicit goods, services and technologies for Iraq's WMD-related, conventional arms, and/or dual-use goods programs."

This is an obvious violation of the vaunted UN sanctions. Indeed it is an idicator of their impotence in deterring Saddam.

This report makes it very clear what Saddams plan was. He was going to make as much money as he could on the black market with Syria, Egypt and Jordan. He was going to buy off UN officials to help erode the economic sanctions and keep the US at bay. And wait patiently until the sanctions were dropped against him. Meanwhile keeping the knowledgebase and equipment for biological and chemical weapons hidden from inspectors:

But Duelfer also supports Bush's argument that Saddam remained a threat. Interviews with the toppled leader and other former Iraqi officials made clear that Saddam still wanted to pursue weapons of mass destruction and hoped to revive his weapons program if U.N. sanctions were lifted.

"What is clear is that Saddam retained his notions of use of force and had experiences that demonstrated the utility of WMD," Duelfer told Congress.

What should be reported was how deep the Oil For Food scandal was going. If you read any kind of blog or listen to any kind of talk radio you know how big this is. However some people are treating it as a surprise.

So considering Saddam was a brutal dictator holding millions of people in fear of being killed, raped or tortured. He used chemical weapons on his own people. He bought off world leaders so that he could buy military equipment to use against us(before the war). He used the starving of his own people to pocket millions if foreign aid. He provided a safe harbor for terrorists and paid money to the families of suicide bombers in Palestine. You have to ask yourself this question: Is Saddam a terrorist? I have to answer yes.

So the Bush doctrine is working. We have destroyed a threat before it developed the ability to strike us here on our own soil. And we have destroyed a haven and black market resource for terrorists. If you will remember the, danger was not that Iraq would launch WMD's at us. But that he would sell them to groups such as Al Quaeda, or Hamas. And this report, and other evidence, leave no doubt that he would have done so.