Page 142 - Leadership Lessons of the White House Fellows

LEADERS ASK THE TOUGH QUESTIONS

general who had been chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and I proba-
bly had more experience than anybody in the room with respect to con-
ducting large-scale military operations, especially against Iraq,” Powell
explained. “So when there was discussion about the military force needed to
decisively deal with the problem in Iraq, I was concerned that maybe there
was not enough force, not enough troops going in for the mission that had
been assigned. I called Tommy Franks to ask him if he thought he had
enough and to tell him I thought it was something that we should discuss
in front of everybody. He took my call and treated it somewhat cavalierly.
Then he quite correctly called his boss, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld,
because I was out of channels, and Secretary Rumsfeld thought it was
appropriate to have me raise the issue at the meeting. So I did. It was
discussed.”
Powell made sure President Bush understood that he had concerns
about the troop levels, but when the president made it clear that he
intended to take the advice of General Franks, Defense Secretary Rums-
feld, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Richard Myers, Powell had
to step aside. “People have asked why I didn’t press my case even more
strongly, and the answer is because I had pressed my case and it was not
my responsibility,” Powell said. “I was not the chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff. So you press your case, but then, after a while, the president can’t
keep hearing you press your case when he is getting different kinds of
advice from the people who have to execute the mission.”
Against Powell’s better judgment, the invasion was carried out in early
2003 by 150,000 troops. Powell believes history will show that he was cor-
rect: The numbers of troops deployed in 2003 were insufficient to com-
plete the mission once the fall of Baghdad was carried out. Indeed, in 2007
President Bush ordered another 20,000 troops into Iraq and extended the
tours of thousands more already on the ground there.
By raising his concerns over certain aspects of both wars in Iraq, Colin
Powell did what any effective leader would do: He gave his best advice and
asked the tough questions even if it meant he stood alone. As it happened,
he resigned from his post as secretary of state in 2005. “I didn’t feel con-
strained to just offer stovepipe advice, totally in my own lane; I gave the
advice that was expected of me,” Powell said. “But presidents deserve even
more than that. They deserve your best thinking and your best judgment,
whether it’s in your lane or not and whether you’re taking a risk by doing

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