Franklin Foer

About the author: Franklin Foer is a staff writer for U.S. News & World Report. Previously he was on the staff of Slate, a Microsoft Network online news magazine.

Iraq's biological and chemical weapons arsenal was in its infancy during the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. Between the conclusion of that war in 1988 and the beginning of the Persian Gulf War in 1991, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein committed more resources to increasing the nation's stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons. In the aftermath of the Gulf War, a defeated Iraq was ordered to destroy its weapons of mass destruction. Although Iraq has stated that it has complied with the mandate, UN weapons inspection teams in Iraq have found evidence to the contrary, and Iraq has failed to provide proof...