I think being asked about something in a pointed way and assuming the person asking wants a conclusion are two very different things.

After 9-11 the US was on its war footing and re-evaluated every single combination of threats.  Bush's speech on "gathering threats".

If the Iraqi regime is able to produce, buy, or steal an amount

of highly enriched uranium a little larger than a single softball,

it could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year. And if we allow

that to happen, a terrible line would be crossed. Saddam Hussein

would be in a position to blackmail anyone who opposes his

aggression. He would be in a position to dominate the Middle East.

He would be in a position to threaten America. And Saddam Hussein

would be in a position to pass nuclear technology to terrorists.

Some citizens wonder, after 11 years of living with this problem,

why do we need to confront it now? And there's a reason. We've

experienced the horror of September the 11th. We have seen that

those who hate America are willing to crash airplanes into buildings

full of innocent people. Our enemies would be no less willing, in

fact, they would be eager, to use biological or chemical, or a

nuclear weapon.

Knowing these realities, America must not ignore the threat

gathering against us. Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait

for the final proof -- the smoking gun -- that could come in the

form of a mushroom cloud. As President Kennedy said in October of

1962, "Neither the United States of America, nor the world community

of nations can tolerate deliberate deception and offensive threats

on the part of any nation, large or small. We no longer live in a

world," he said, "where only the actual firing of weapons represents

a sufficient challenge to a nations security to constitute maximum

peril."

What's amazing to me, looking back 11 years, is how there's still no consensus on whether this was a good thing to do.

People who were against the war in the first place are still against it.

Hawks are still for it.

We spent a lot of money, lives, and time. But it's hard to know if we're better off because of it.