IN A SPEECH Monday at George Washington University, Senator Ted Kennedy accused the president of conducting an Iraq policy that has made it more likely that al Qaeda could launch a “nuclear 9/11.” According to Kennedy, American military resources were needlessly diverted to the war in Iraq rather than being deployed against Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. But General Tommy Franks, the commander of U.S. forces for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, disagrees. “Operations in Afghanistan did not suffer as a result of the one in Iraq,” Franks said in a CNN interview last month.

Nevertheless, Kennedy charged that “the war in Iraq has made the mushroom cloud more likely, not less likely.” Of course, he is entitled to his view. No doubt his claim will be vigorously debated in the coming days, along with the senator’s message that somehow he and his fellow critics would be far more ruthless going after bin Laden than the current administration. So with talk of mushroom clouds while Saddam Hussein awaits trial for crimes against humanity, this may be a good time to revisit just how close Saddam came to acquiring nuclear weapons over a decade ago.