U.S. Defends Handling of War in Iraq

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040315/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq&cid=544&ncid=1480

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The war has become a top issue in the presidential campaign. Democrats say President Bush (news - web sites)'s poor planning and failure to build a broader international coalition have left the United States mired in a conflict with an extraordinary cost in lives and tax dollars.

Bush built the case for war around intelligence that Saddam had stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and an advanced nuclear weapons program. But U.S. inspectors have found no stockpiles and say the nuclear threat was overstated.

The former chief U.N. weapons inspector, Hans Blix, said that before invading Iraq the Bush administration was overly confident Saddam's regime possessed weapons of mass destruction and wasn't interested in evidence to the contrary.

"I think they had a set mind. They wanted to come to the conclusion that there were weapons. Like the former days of the witch hunt, they are convinced that they exist," Blix said Monday on NBC's "Today" show. "You need a critical mind and I think that also goes for the top."