The net effect was to shout "he's got a gun!" at the critical moment of action - a security council vote, IIRC.
I didn't think Saddam was a serious threat to the west at the time, but the relentless hype did make me think it over one night: what if? And then I saw that anything asymmetrical he could do would quickly result in his destruction. Even if he had all the dirty weapons possible at his disposal, he wouldn't have been able to use them.
And, of course, what came out later makes governmental prognostications now from secret evidence almost impossible to believe. Western governments, in particular US and UK, lost their credibility. Secret evidence is used for political purposes, not for security. The case for covert interception of communications is severely weakened. Probably even our security is damaged.
I didn't think Saddam was a serious threat to the west at the time, but the relentless hype did make me think it over one night: what if? And then I saw that anything asymmetrical he could do would quickly result in his destruction. Even if he had all the dirty weapons possible at his disposal, he wouldn't have been able to use them.
And, of course, what came out later makes governmental prognostications now from secret evidence almost impossible to believe. Western governments, in particular US and UK, lost their credibility. Secret evidence is used for political purposes, not for security. The case for covert interception of communications is severely weakened. Probably even our security is damaged.