Now he tells us

General Hugh Shelton, chair of the Joint Chiefs 1997-2001, has a memoir out:

His bottom line: "President Bush and his team got us enmeshed in Iraq based on extraordinarily poor intelligence and a series of lies purporting that we had to protect American from Saddam's evil empire because it posed such a threat to our national security." (474-475)

Just in case you weren't paying attention, he elaborates on that charge later in the book. "Spinning the possible possession of WMDs as a threat to the United States in the way they did is, in my opinion, tantamount to intentionally deceiving the American people." (488)

Thanks for waiting until 2010 to share, General.

Tom Ricks has more posts on Shelton's book here and here. Shelton does not admire Rumsfeld.