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Well, as your source itself says, Israel’s priorities were Iran and Syria, with Iraq a distant third place. And I’m not sure your explanation actually affects my question. The CIA was still less able to get regime change opps off the ground (including beyond the ME) after Iraq; and (as the interview with the ex-head of MI6 surely suggests) many legitimate intelligence personnel strongly believed the WMDs existed even where they had objections to an invasion. Jervis and the BBC both note that it was considered fringe in intelligence circles to believe that Saddam didn’t have WMDs, especially after he refused the inspectors.
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