The fifth president of
Iraq,
Saddam Hussein,[SUP]
[1][/SUP] was internationally condemned for his
use of chemical weapons during the 1980s against
Iranian and
Kurdish civilians during and after the
Iran–Iraq War. In the 1980s, Saddam pursued an extensive
biological weapons program and a nuclear weapons program, though no nuclear bomb was built.
After the
Persian Gulf War, the
United Nations located and destroyed large quantities of Iraqi chemical weapons and related equipment and materials throughout the early 1990s, with varying degrees of Iraqi cooperation and obstruction.[SUP]
[2][/SUP] In response to diminishing Iraqi cooperation with
UNSCOM, the
United States called for withdrawal of all UN and
IAEA inspectors in 1998, resulting in
Operation Desert Fox. The United States and the UK asserted that Saddam Hussein still possessed large hidden stockpiles of
weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in 2003, and that he was clandestinely procuring and producing more. Inspections by the UN to resolve the status of unresolved disarmament questions restarted between November 2002 and March 2003,[SUP]
[3][/SUP] under
UN Security Council Resolution 1441, which demanded Saddam give "immediate, unconditional and active cooperation" with UN and IAEA inspections, shortly before his country was attacked.
Weapons of mass destruction don't just come in the shape of Guns and Tanks mate
