Removing weapons of mass destruction was the main pretext used by the US－led coalition to launch the war against Iraq. The US and UK has long accused Iraq of stashing biological, chemical or nuclear weapons, and evading the inspections by the United Nations. But nearly a month into the war, they have failed to find such weapons in a country now largely under their control.
However, even if the coalition finds such weapons, will it make the war legitimate？
Four months of searching for Iraq's weapons of mass destruction by the UN inspectors did not result in anything that could satisfy the US and the UK. And on March 20, they decided to do it themselves, by force.
George W. Bush, US President: Our nation enters this conflict reluctantly, yet our purpose is sure. The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder.
The reluctantly－entered but seemingly well－reasoned conflict took a month. The coalition toppled Saddam Hussein, a thorn in the side of the Americans and the British. The war killed an unspecified number of Iraqi troops and perhaps thousands of civilians.
That's not all. The coalition has controlled Iraq's rich oil fields, the world's second largest, and is set to plant an interim government led by an American general.
But except for a few caches of conventional ammunition, Bush has not found anything of what he described as "weapons of mass murder".
Ruan Zongze, international affairs analyst: If the US fails to find weapons of mass destruction, it will substantiate the international community's judgment about the US purposes to launch the war. The real reasons, I think, are to control the oil and gas resources of the Middle East, control the region's strategic places and overthrow the Saddam regime. Weapons of mass destruction are just an excuse to invade.
While clearing away the remaining resistance in Iraq, the US now seems even more intent to find traces of weapons of mass destruction. It even hired about 1,000 people to search for them. Meanwhile, coalition heads sound confident about finding them as they were before the war.
Tony Blair, British Prime Minister: Well, we will find weapons of mass destruction. For the last three weeks we've been fighting battles and once this combat period is over we can then turn our attention to finding the weapons of mass destruction and I think they will be found.
Finding such weapons will serve many purposes for the coalition, at the least to give the war some legitimacy the US and the UK desired but failed to acquire before the start of conflict. But analysts doubt it will work out their way.
Professor Tao Wenzhao, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: The international community has not recognized the legitimacy of the war because the US bypassed the UN Security Council to attack Iraq. So even they find some WMDs, it still does not give it legitimacy because it bypassed the UN.
Now the coalition has developed a new tactic, suggesting that Iraq might have smuggled away its weapons, into Syria, for example. This gives Washington and London more time to continue their pursuit for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, in Syria or in any other country they suspects.
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