Why did Gen. Colin Powell resign as Secretary of State?

Question

Could it be because, once he had all the fact about why we went into Iraq, maybe he didn't agree with it? The White House admits they were given information which was inacurate about the WMD's and Gen. Powell was the one pleading the case before the UN. Who knows what went through his mind?

More family time , yeah! Okay.

Answer 1

My understanding is that President Bush requested Secretary Powell to resign, because of their differences of opinion regarding the war in Iraq. I would have trusted the Secretary a little bit more, as Powell had been an Army General during President George HW Bush's administration (our current President's dad) and the first Gulf War.

Answer 2

He lost credibility since he did not ask tough questions and just went along the the Bush administration. Although he did NOT oppose Condoleezza Rice, however, he did not give his blessing as his successor. All the rest have been possibly made secrets to prevent further questioning that would lead to the White House similar to how according to a former official has stated that Bush knew about the outing of Valerie Plame-Wilson as a former Covert Agent in revenge since her husband was telling the truth that Niger was NOT selling Uranium Cakes to Iraq and the British document was a forgery and possibly made up by the British to support what eventually became Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Answer 3

In any career, you never leave a position for an openly negative or digruntled reason.

In job interviews, you are taught to always claim you left a position to "grow into new areas" or "to find more time for other aspects of my career".

We'll never know General Powell's real motivation, we can only speculate. There have been several reports that it was Powell's disagrements with Cheney and in particular one of Cheney's high level aides (David Addington) that was really the straw that broke the camel's back.

It was also fairly clear, he was misled as to the strength of the intelligence that he was asked to broadcast to the United Nations.

You could also argue, that he was a loyal soldier, and his only motivation for leaving was to withdraw from public service a little, and make a little money in the private sector, something he is more than entitled to given his great service to this country.

What will be interesting is to see what role General Powell will play in future administrations. I think he is a valuable asset to this country, and I really lament the fact he is no longer in public service. Hopefully a future president will see his value, and convince him to return in some capacity.

Answer 4

In my opinion he got out of the water before it got too hot. I think he knew what was going on behind closed doors, on more of a "Regime" level. Maybe he disagreed with that, and wanted to get out. He might have also been kicked out, so to speak, because of his different values. Colin Powell was also used and was the one that had to tell the WORLD that Iraq had WM D's, which I am pretty sure they made up. The words I mean. Just one of the tools of the Propaganda. Weapons of Mass Destruction. That was the sentence that would be the reason for an assault on Iraq. Only, they never got permission. The UN did go into Iraq and found Nothing. The US assaulted without receiving permission.

Answer 5

It's tough to say. I think Powell was aware that his credibility had been shot after the invasion of Iraq. According to just about every single book written about the war, Powell was unconvinced that less than 200,000 troops could effectively get the job done and evidently the joint chiefs agreed with him, but Tommy Franks, Centcom and the Bush hawks basically ran the show. Powell was clearly outnumbered in the administration and perhaps he was tired of his views being basically ignored in favor of Wolfowitz, Cheney, Perle, etc. He might of thought he'd had an ally in Rice, who seemed to agree more with him than with the hawks, but again, according to pretty much everything written about the war, Rice was reluctant to argue with the hawks. So, Powell put his credibility on the line and ended up with nothing to show for it, so he saw the writing on the wall and left.

Answer 6

From what I understand about General Powell, he is a truthful man and finally came to the conclusion that this administration was NOT doing the country right.. He could not consciously continue as part of the leadership in the U.S. and had to retire from government service.
Spartawo...

Answer 7

Like everyone in the Bush administration he said what he was told to say. I think he finally got tired of the politics and the war. Plus, a lot of Bush's buddies were under fire at the time he left, he probably wanted to get out before his head was on the chopping board, or he had to answer difficult questions. Bush seems to throw you to the dogs once there is nothing in it for him anymore.

Answer 8

Had to laugh at the person who said he left for "more family time." This is the default reason whenever anybody leaves/is forced out.

It was time to go. I think his frustration level was high (being the only one against the war), and he was humiliated by his caving in to the administration and making the case for war.

Answer 9

Gen. Powell is plenty rich now, and with him and Hillary chumming, he had to distance himself from last girl, Condoleesa.


LOL

Just joking.

Answer 10

no maybe it was a vast right wing conspiracy theory. Ad his Green card was up and the hypnosis whore off, or maybe that was the agreement the he had with Bush. Hey how come Obama is aligning with major corp. Like Oprah? I thought he was anti big business? Maybe because of the race card?