Iraq WMD Logic

[charlietwo]

While in an international relations class, the instructor mentioned the lack of WMD's in Iraq, and another student asked rhetorically, "Wasn't that the only reason we went into Iraq?" Amidst the laughter from the rest of the class, I chimed in to say that Saddam was actively pursuing nuclear, and chemical weapons. The vast majority of the class scoffed at me like I was a fool, and one student confronted me at the end of a break with the standard line of "Bush falsified intelligence for oil." The discussion rapidly became a stalemate, as neither of us had any evidence to support either claim being made. I knew the stories of pre-war smuggling to Syria, yellow cake caches, and an abundance of chemical weapons, but I didn't feel strong enough to argue with the faint knowledge I had.

My question that I would like to pose to you all, what would the conservative leadership gain from keeping new WMD information under wraps? My best assumption is to prevent an overt accusation at Syria to prevent more hostilities.

Thoughts anyone?