CHEMICAL WEAPONS IN IRAQ: LT Smash has a roundup of news and reactions to the Sarin-gas / mustard gas story.

UPDATE: Reader Kevin Greene says the spin has already started:

Found this quote interesting, and proof that the left will change the debate if WMD are found in Iraq:

“But David Kay, the former chief U.S. weapons inspector in Iraq, said the discovery does not provide evidence that Saddam was secretly producing weapons of mass destruction after the Gulf War, as alleged by the Bush administration to justify the war that removed him from power.” [emphasis is mine]

See, if we FIND actual WMD, then the left will begin to claim that Saddam wasn’t “secretly producing” it, and so Bush lied. In fact, nobody ever claimed that we were invading Iraq because Saddam was actively producing WMD – only that he had undeclared WMD, might have mobile factories, and was preventing the UN from finding it and getting rid of it.

We’ll see. Stay tuned.

ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader notes that everyone wants a “smoking gun,” but points out what David Kay was saying a year and a half ago before the invasion of Iraq:

When it comes to the U.N. weapons inspection in Iraq, looking for a smoking gun is a fool’s mission. That was true 11 years ago when I led the inspections there. It is no less true today — even after the seemingly important discovery on Thursday of a dozen empty short-range missile warheads left over from the 1980s.

The only job the inspectors can expect to accomplish is confirming whether Iraq has voluntarily disarmed. That is not a task that need take months more. And last week’s cache is irrelevant in answering that question, regardless of the U.N.’s final determination. That’s because the answer is already clear: Iraqi is in breach of U.N. demands that it dismantle its weapons of mass destruction.

Indeed.

MORE: A reader emails:

Listen, if the Left believes that 7 soldiers out of 150 thousand abusing Iraqis detainees can sully the honor of the whole military, then this one shell is proof that Saddam had an extensive WMD program.

Sounds fair to me!