On March 7, 2003, chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix said: ” ‘unlike the US/UK, the inspectors did not believe they had conclusive evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. This strengthened the widely held view that at any rate Iraq did not constitute a threat that had to be dealt with immediately by force. If armed action would be needed, it could be authorised later.’ He also concluded that ‘the US [Bush] administration swung from seeing the inspection reports as potential assets in underpinning a future demand for armed action to identifying them as an impediment, the authority of which the US needed to undermine.’ ”
– Clare Short, An Honourable Deception?, Page 252