Is weapons training necessary?

The poll that is posted asked if weapons training is necessary to understand Aikido? The majority of people seem to think so but I don't understand why. Although Aikido does train with weapons, most of the training is done with no weapons at all. Could someone explain to me why it is needed.

There is already a good discussion of the poll here:

http://www.aikiweb.com/forums/showth...&threadid=3247

-- Jun