The information was bad, but it certainly wasn't clear to an 8 year old and probably wasn't even clear to Bush & Co. Given the incredible effort that the US military spent trying to hunt down WMDs after the war, it's clear the belief was genuine. That doesn't make their decisions good, but it makes them somewhat understandable.
I was 30 when the Iraq war started. I had mixed feelings then and to be honest, I still have mixed feelings. I cry not one single tear for Saddam Hussein, though the population of Iraq deserved a better outcome.
The only reason that we suspected he had chemical war systems is that the US sold him those chemical war systems in the 1980s to use against Iran. I'm not sure how ready or what level of disrepair they were in 20 years later.
Removing Saddam absolutely was wrong strategically, and lead to about a million people dying.
Around here, comedians were just repeating the evidence to get people to laugh. It was so clear cut that it didn't need explanation.
But then it stopped being funny when the US actually acted on it.
If you presented everything to a smart 8 year old, they would said it sounded dubious.