Your pro-war acquaintances think Hans Blix is a bumbling idiot (Dennis Miller calls him "Inspector Clouseau"). They think Blix is blind -- or willfully blind -- to evidence of Saddam's perfidy. Do they understand that this is simply not true? Do they understand that he seeks more time for inspections knowing that there is probably a lot of nasty stuff to be found?

Hans Blix, head of the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, delivered the report Friday to the U.N. Security Council. It has not been released to the public, but the Los Angeles Times has obtained a copy.

The U.N. report increases the estimate for Saddam's presumed stockpile of anthrax, for example, from 8,500 liters to 10,000. "Based on all the available evidence, the strong presumption is that about 10,000 liters of anthrax may still exist" and could still be viable, it said.

U.N. inspectors also warned that they may have underestimated the danger of Saddam's aging supply of mustard gas, a systemic poison that blisters the skin and is lethal if inhaled. Recent tests confirmed the "high purity" of sulfur mustard stored in artillery shells for 12 years.

In addition, previous U.N. reports stated that Iraq had not accounted for as many as 550 artillery shells and 450 aerial bombs filled with mustard gas. "However, based on a document recently received from Iraq, this quantity could be substantially higher," the report notes. Iraqi officials blame the discrepancy on faulty accounting.

--Los Angeles Times, via the Newark Star-Ledger

The UN report, according to the Times, says that Saddam planned to launch a chem/bio attack in the '91 war if Baghdad was nuked.

Could the pro-war side, whether they agree or not, please at least make an effort to follow the logic of the pro-inspections argument -- that war may mean a chem-bio attack and continued inspections could well be a way to prevent one?