Diplomatic dithering and the disappearance of WMDs

The typically-incisive Belmont Club suggests that the months-long delay between the first U.N. resolution authorizing force and Bush's "going the extra mile" to get a second for Tony Blair's political cover gave Saddam the time he needed to hide his WMDs. How iRONic. The gift of time. And now the "rush to war / let's give diplomacy more time to work" crowd are some of the biggest critics of the coalition's failure to find WMDs. Hmm.

Who's responsible? (OK, as W himself says, we're a responsibility society: Bush's loyalty to an ally -- a calculated risk -- is responsible; but he's man enough not to make excuses; not so his critics who would never admit that their obsession with appeasement diplomacy actually helped Saddam or made the world less safe).