I question the rush to condemn Gen Powell here.

I was mobilized from the Army Reserve in the build-up to the invasion of Iraq. I was skeptical about the justification to invade Iraq - at first.

I sat through a daily intelligence briefing on Iraq that the Regular Army commanding general for whom I worked received. There was never any doubt expressed by the intelligence folks that there were WMD in Iraq. It wasn't a matter of the intelligence community having a high degree of confidence in their analysis, there was simply no question. By the time the invasion occurred, the briefings had overcome my skepticism and I was convinced the WMD were going to be found.

We now know that Cheney and Rumsfeld had their thumbs on the scale and got the intelligence analysis that they wanted despite the evidence. That capitulation to Cheney and Rumsfeld is on the intelligence community and not the consumers of the intelligence. Gen Powell did not create the bogus intelligence, he was the victim of a lie.