Shelton also writes that there was no reason to go war against Iraq. "The fact is that we had Iraq contained and they were not a threat." (419) Also, "There was absolutely no link between him [Saddam] and 9/11." (474) No big revelations, but I was glad to see this stated so flatly by a former high official.
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)
This is shocking stuff. Why isn't this man on T.V? Larry King needs to interview him.
It is big news that a former top military official is saying that the Bush administration lied to the country to get into a needless war. He is essentially accusing the Bush administration of betraying the American people, and committing war crimes. Let's not forget that preemptive war is a war crime, and the penalty is public execution. George Orwell wrote; "Preventive war is a crime not easily committed by a country that retains any traces of democracy."
We're all so dazed by the constant media bullshit cycle that we don't stop and reflect on the actual news. Or maybe we've forgotten what constitutes real news. In my mind, if a country's top general who advised the President for four years says publicly that America is fighting a war based on lies then he should be listened to.
Gen. Shelton needs to be immediately interviewed by journalists, and news anchors. He is not a disgruntled vet, he was the former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff! A statue has been built in this man's honor. And as Tom Ricks writes;
"These are pretty serious charges, given that they come from the man who was the nation's top military officer for four years immediately preceding 9/11."
Gen. Shelton's biggest target in his memoirs is former Defense Secretary/Demon/War Criminal/Sociopathic Liar Donald Rumsfeld. He said:
"The McNamara-Rumsfeld model," as Shelton calls it, was "based on deception, deceit, working political agendas, and trying to get the Joint Chiefs to support an action that might not be the right thing to do for the country but would work well for the President from a political standpoint." (401) (From Tom Ricks' The Best Defense blog).There is a good reason the U.S. empire is called the great satan in the Muslim world: it is truthful. One of the devil's characteristics is lying on a grand scale, which Rumsfeld and his neocon partners in crime are well familiar with.
Below is a poem written by Cheryl Seal in May 2004 called "The Devil and Donald Rumsfeld":
A 'Ballad" in the tradition of House Carpenter andother ancient ballads of betrayal and nonredemption
Donald Rumsfeld was sitting in his office
Planning out his next big lie
When up through the floor comes the devil himself
In a silken suit and tie
He asked, "How do you like your office my friend?
Tell me, how do you like gold?
How do you like your soldiers,
Some not even 20 years old?"
"Quite well do I like my title fine,
And soldiers by the score,
But it's best that I like my pretty yellow gold
And I wish I had some more."
"And what would you give for gold my friend?"
said the Devil with his horns laid bare,
"Would you give me your soul and America's too,
And a thousand soldiers fair?"
Donald Rumsfeld gave his answer
In a whispered voice so low,
Then the Devil disappeared with a wink and grin\
Into the fires below.
************************************
Now one thousand good brave soldiers
Are lying in cold hard graves
The Devil is dancing in the White House
With a Cabinet full of slaves
Is Donald Rumsfeld in his high hall
at the the desk he likes so well?
No... Rummy's counting out a mountain of gold,
Sitting at the gates of hell.
