Nothing got in or out of Iraq without Saddam Hussein's knowledge, so we know where these reports from MSNBC and CNN are leading towards. Saddam Hussein was a psychopath - not an idiot. The international community, quite accustomed to his brazen denials and outright shell games in the midst of Special Commission teams, thought he was too proud to break down his prized possessions into unrecognizable fragments. Baghdad's Capone would never hide behind a speakeasy.

Unlikely, but not impossible. Anyone who can withstand the slow, grinding death of a modern country's economy from sanctions, all for the continued possession of the world's most powerful weapons, can certainly resolve to outlast international scrutiny. Saddam's unraveling work shows an absolutely confident, disciplined criminal mind: disarm oneself, and let yourself be frisked, albeit declining a body cavity search. Stare your inquistors down.

Too far-fetched? How soon we forget: remember, if the United States had listened to the grand wisdom of the United Nations Security Council, the assault on Saddam would never have happened. It never would have happened. Clinton passed on his opportunity. Bush Sr. did, too, in a different way. But they both balked. This time might have tragically been a similar failure of will.

Now, the left will take this news unabashed, because - as the mantra goes - "Bush told us the threat was imminent." But "imminent" almost always meant terms of dissemination to terrorists, not the "missile-tipped silos" tripwire espoused by some - that incidentally brings to mind airbags that deploy ten seconds after violent impact, just to ensure that their exertion is justified.

Part of this heat is understandable, even while it remains unjustified and a simple act of trusting Saddam over Bush. I've remarked a few times that Bush and Blair trapped themselves by assuming a humanitarian/sociopolitical appeal, stating that the destruction of the Near East's dictatorships would in fact starve terrorism, could never persuade. Instead, they limited themselves to the highly semantic and troublesome route of "weapons of mass destruction." When in fact the point was not so much weapons but their controller, his intended uses for such and the regional culture his presence maintained, the argument nevertheless focused simply on the weapons. Bush and Blair were forced to claim that a weaponless Ba'athist Iraq was an acceptable Ba'athist Iraq - a farce for many dozens of reasons.

The discovery of weapons and programs will accomplish two things: a political vindication of Messrs. Blair and Bush, and the prevention of technological proliferation to authoritarians of all stripes. But the real victory is injecting - forcefully, unapologetically - democracy into what is today a hideous mockery of society.