[dd74]

[aside: Quick quiz -- how "large" a "stockpile" of Sarin or botulism (in cubic space) would I need to kill, say the entire population of Chicago?]

Interesting thought. I imagine you're saying this stockpile would be small. Okay, if it's so small, how does anyone know it's there/not there/or ever was there? Granted, it's a crap shoot to find it, and it would be horrible if any exists in Iraq. The way to find it, if it does exist, is through a steady stream of "good intelligence," not assumptions and conjecture as was the case.

What needs to be done now is to think of WMDs in intangible terms. Threat level risings and scary news reports are WMDs, in a way.