The Guardian talks sense in its leader column today (I am nothing if not predictable) on the Libyan WMDs affair:

"What a great pity that Iraq's supposed WMD could not have been handled in a similarly intelligent, non-violent fashion. Certain ministers claim to find retrospective justification for the Iraq war in Libya's action, suggesting it had somehow been scared into compliance. This is sad, shabby stuff....This slow process of rapprochement, including the ever painful Lockerbie saga, was in train long before Mr Bush let rip over Baghdad.

"To this delicate process, Washington's bellicosity formed a worrying backdrop, not a spur....If anything, it now seems Mr Bush may have inadvertently invaded the wrong country. The fabled WMD were in Libya all along. All the more reason, next time around, for preferring words to guns and gung-ho."

The paper also urges the international community to stop turning a blind eye to the world's fifth largest nuclear power -- Israel. If Libya can do it, why not Israel? it asks.

A good question -- and when the BBC asked it earlier this year the Israeli government withdrew co-operation with the corporation.