Weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) have rarely been out of the headlines since the run up to the latest war in Iraq. Indeed the manufacture of WMDs by Iraq, and the danger they were supposed to represent, was used in large part to justify military action. It is true that President Bush placed almost equal stress on the need to bring about regime change in that unhappy country, but Prime Minister Blair placed nearly all his emphasis on Saddam's alleged WMD programme. Accordingly, the inability of the invading forces to find WMDs has turned into more of an embarrassment to Blair than to Bush.