No, Saddam's weapons potential wasn't a figment of anybody's imagination:

U.S. intelligence suspects Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have finally been located.

Unfortunately, getting to them will be nearly impossible for the United States and its allies, because the containers with the strategic materials are not in Iraq.

Instead they are located in Lebanon's heavily-fortified Bekaa Valley, swarming with Iranian and Syrian forces, and Hizbullah and ex-Iraqi agents, Geostrategy-Direct.com will report in Wednesday's new weekly edition.

U.S. intelligence first identified a stream of tractor-trailer trucks moving from Iraq to Syria to Lebanon in January 2003. The significance of this sighting did not register on the CIA at the time.

U.S. intelligence sources believe the area contains extended-range Scud-based missiles and parts for chemical and biological warheads.

Two challenges here. First, following through on a cited justification for war in spite of Saddam's trickery (and the hedging of those eager to believe him); second, continuing to prosecute the war on terror by confronting the terrorist state of Syria. If the Bush administration feared it lacked political momentum to accomplish these goals, it certainly has quite a bit now.