Saddam was a major BSer/bluffer, this was well-known. Not saying that he was not a potential problem for us, but it was becoming more apparent by the day that he did not have all that we thought he did when the second wave of inspectors were making the rounds.
Personally, I think that Bush should have bluffed him right back, played him for a biatch w/ our troops in the region while we concentrated on Afghanistan and the other places where OBL might be hiding. We could have shown that we will hunt down the actual people responsible for any attacks on our country relentlessly, sort of like the Israelis did after the '72 Olympics, but on a bigger scale.
Instead, we showed that we have a leader with the worst case of ADD in the history of the world, he forgot all about OBL and AQ within months, (and before getting even close to catching OBL), and went off on a side track into Iraq. IRAQ?? WTF, dude? Keep your eye on the ball! Oh well, we can see how that all worked out. Better luck next time, I guess.
OBL and Iran are stronger now, we showed too much of our hand and now they know that we are not in a great position to fight a larger or different war at this time. Should have bluffed, everyone was fooled in our favor. President SFB and the neocon "brain trust" fuched themselves, and us.