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The Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Postwar Iraq

© Bryan Dietzler

Now that the war in Iraq is drawing to a close, the next steps in the Coalition's work begin and the search for and discovery of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction will take center stage. The allegations and belief that Iraq's government had been actively pursuing a chemical, biological and nuclear weapons was the driving force behind the invasion of Iraq. Now, after over a month of war and Coalition occupation, not a single piece of evidence has been discovered that would show that the Iraqi government was producing, researching or fielding weapons of mass destruction. Now all eyes turn towards America and Britain to come up with proof that Iraq possessed WMD thus justifying their attack on Iraq.

The United States has taken the search for WMD in Iraq to a new level and called in over 1,000 personnel to begin a hard and thorough search of Iraq for any evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Now the real work begins. Lately, Iraqi scientists have been coming forward, offering bits and pieces of information regarding a "past" chemical weapons program, but haven't produced and clear and convincing proof that Iraq possessed chemical weapons prior to the U.S. led invasion. The Coalition has also captured several top Iraqi officials but either they aren't talking or the U.S. isn't telling anyone what they are saying. It could be a little bit of both.

Soldiers of both the American have mainly conducted the Coalition search for WMD and British forces that have found several sites they thought might contain WMD. However, testing on these sites has turned up negative results for chemical, biological or nuclear materials. So the search continues with potential new discoveries almost daily now but with each new discovery comes news that the tests for WMD have come up negative. So what happened to Saddam Hussein's arsenal of chemical and biological weapons and the materials the government had acquired to create nuclear weapons? Did he even have the weapons that the United States and Britain thought that he had to begin with?

The answer to the first question is clearly unknown. It has been said that the Iraqi's might have shipped some or even a majority of its WMD to Syria until the crisis had passed. That is a very likely possibility. Another and possibly more realistic explanation for the lack of WMD discoveries so far is that they may have buried some of the materials or hidden them underneath buildings where they would be harder to