No WMD in Iraq. None. Period. Got it?

This is for all those people (not that any of them are reading this blog) who were still clinging to the belief; some might say the hope, that their Fearless Leader, Jesus H. Bush, would be vindicated by the finding of even one stockpile of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq (emphases mine):

Wrapping up his investigation into Saddam Hussein's purported arsenal, the CIA's top weapons hunter in Iraq said his search for weapons of mass destruction "has been exhausted" without finding any.

Nor did he find any evidence that such weapons were shipped officially from Iraq to Syria to be hidden before the U.S. invasion, but he couldn't rule out some unofficial transfer of limited WMD-related materials.

He closed his effort with words of caution about potential future threats and careful assessment of this and other unanswered questions.

The Bush administration justified its 2003 invasion of Iraq as necessary to eliminate Hussein's purported stockpile of WMD.

"As matters now stand, the WMD investigation has gone as far as feasible," wrote Charles Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, in an addendum to the report he issued last fall. "After more than 18 months, the WMD investigation and debriefing of the WMD-related detainees has been exhausted."

In 92 pages posted online Monday evening, Duelfer provided a final look at an investigation that, at its peak, occupied more than 1,000 military and civilian translators, weapons specialists and other experts. His latest addenda conclude a roughly 1,500-page report released last fall.

Among warnings sprinkled throughout the new documents, one concludes that Saddam's programs created a pool of weapons experts, many of whom will be seeking work. While most will probably turn to the "benign civil sector," the danger remains that "hostile foreign governments, terrorists or insurgents may seek Iraqi expertise."

"Because a single individual can advance certain WMD activities, it remains an important concern," one addendum said.

Another addendum noted that military forces in Iraq may continue to find small numbers of degraded chemical weapons — most likely misplaced or improperly destroyed before 1991. In an insurgent's hands, "the use of a single even ineffectual chemical weapon would likely cause more terror than deadlier conventional explosives," the addendum said.

Now, the Bush apologists will seize on expressions like "small numbers of degraded chemical weapons" or "pool of weapons experts", or "limited WMD-related materials" as proof that Saddam Hussein did, in fact, have WMD and that the war was justified on this front -- at the same time that they parrot the "liberation of the Iraqi people" line, just to make sure the bases are covered.

However, "limited" and "small numbers" is not what the American people were told when Bush announced his boner for war. We were told about huge quantities of active weapons and thriving weapons programs that posed an imminent threat to our own shores. And it was all bullshit.

And no one seems to want to hold this Administration responsible for anything.

UPDATE: Remember when the MSM had succeeded in convincing 71% of Americans that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction? Not any more:

Half of all Americans, exactly 50%, now say the Bush administration deliberately misled Americans about whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, the Gallup Organization reported this morning.

"This is the highest percentage that Gallup has found on this measure since the question was first asked in late May 2003," the pollsters observed. "At that time, 31% said the administration deliberately misled Americans. This sentiment has gradually increased over time, to 39% in July 2003, 43% in January/February 2004, and 47% in October 2004."

Also, according to the latest poll, more than half of Americans, 54%, disapprove of the way President Bush is handling the situation in Iraq, while 43% approve. In early February, Americans were more evenly divided on the way Bush was handling the situation in Iraq, with 50% approving and 48% disapproving.

Last week Gallup reported that 53% now believe that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was "not worth it." But Frank Newport, editor in chief at Gallup, recalled today that although a majority of the public began to think the Vietnam war was a mistake in the summer of 1968, the United States did not pull out of Vietnam for more than five years, after thousands of more American lives were lost.

These are bad, bad, bad numbers for Captain Codpiece, for the GOP in general, and for the Genius King, King Karl. This means only one thing: Time to let another terrorist attack happen. Maybe that's what Georgie and King Abdullah were discussing yesterday.