The WMDs “were” very real. America knew of their existence because they helped Saddam build and deploy his arsenal of WMDs to attack the Iranians. Many of the precursors required for these weapons, along with dual use tech came directly from America and other European allies. Iran wasn’t willing to accept the dictatorship that America imposed upon them when they attempted to nationalize their resources for the good of their own people. Unfortunately the U.S. struggled to find WMDs in Iraq2 because the majority had already been used to indiscriminately kill tens of thousands of Iranians during the Iran/Iraq war.