why do we still not ask the obvious?

in 2002 and 2003, when the white house beat war drums and conjured up mushroom cloud imagery and the national security adviser ran an op-ed titled why we know iraq is lying, the question was obvious:

given that we threaten invasion and the main value of nuclear and other mass weapons is deterrence, why would saddam hussein deny it if he has WMD?

yet i know of no politician or mainstream journalist that asked it.

today we are giving an iraqi army the finest training and equipment in the world, and everybody wonders if US withdrawal will lead to an escalating civil war, yet nobody asks why iraq won't attack israel.

indeed, would it really astound anyone if shi'a and sunni resolved their differences by uniting around a belligerent anti-israel policy?

given the history of the region, it shouldn't.