In Memorium: To Those That Have Left Us

by AlvinBlah on May 28, 2007 | Trackback URI | Email This Post | 20 Views

It’s fitting that on Memorial Day we Americans remember those that are no longer with us. Traditionally this day is reserved for those of the armed services that have fallen from combat, but the sentiment can and should be extended to all those that are now gone. President Bush has held office for nearly eight years now, and of those that started that journey with him, few remain of the original staff. The Cabinet of the 43rd President has been a veritable revolving door of appointments and confirmations. I will take today, to remember those members of President Bush’s ruling body that have been fired, resigned, or quit in protest. The list is long, and the reasons for their not being here today are varied, but they shall be remembered.

Colin Powell:
Secretary of State from 2001-2005

Colin Powell served in the U.S. Army with distinction and making many firsts, both with being the youngest person to be Secretary of The Joint Chiefs, but the first, and so far only African American to do so. His position as Secretary of State is one of the highest positions in civilian government that an African American has held as well. Mr. Powell is famously known for his Powell Doctrine and his advocation for war in Iraq with the United Nations. While Secretary of State Mr. Powell frequently came into policy and ideology conflict with Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Cheney. When more information came forward that many of the pretexts for war were either exaggerated or false, Mr. Powell turned in his resignation. There may have been presidental pressures for resignation, but Mr. Powell also worked closely with an international community that he had willfully misled.

John W. Snow:
Secretary of The Treasury from 2003-2006

John W. Snow has been in and out of public service for many years, and has received most of his appointments from Republican presidents. He is record is not a stand out record, nor has he drawn much media attention. While he was Secretary of The Treasury it was discovered that his brokers had invested in debt holdings that created a conflict of interest unknown to Mr. Snow who did divest the debt holdings. An ethics lawyer for the Treasury decided that it did not create an immediate conflict of interest, but could do so in the future, Mr. Snow filed his resignation shortly after.

Donald H. Rumsfeld:
Secretary of Defense from 2001-2006

Mr. Rumsfeld was one of the key architects of the Iraq war. He has served in Washington cabinets as far back as President Nixon, and under President Ford served as the Secretary of Defense. Mr. Rumsfeld is both the youngest and oldest person to have served in the position, and the only one who has served the position non-consecutively. Mr. Rumsfeld has been an advocate of his own self-named doctrine that advocates for a small and highly tactical U.S. Armed force. His approach was successful when fighting in Afghanistan, but when applying the same tactics to the larger, more populous, and more stable nation of Iraq much of the doctrine did not apply. The armed forces learned that a small and highly capable force can eliminate a government, but like a police force, civilian stability comes from a large authoritative presence, one that was in direct conflict with Mr. Rumsfeld’s philosophies. It is widely regarded that these short sights, and massive failures in containing the ensuing protracted violence in Iraq brought about the call for his resignation.

Gale A. Norton:

Secretary of the Interior from 2001-2006

Ms. Norton was senior council for a law firm that lobbied for the Lead industry before being appointed to Secretary of the Interior by Mr. Bush. She is one of many that suffered from association to lobbyist Jack Abramoff and subsequently resigned. Ms. Norton, we hardly got to know you…

John D. Ashcroft:

Attorney General of The United States from 2001-2004

John Ashcroft is a character. In his position as Attorney General he quickly made enemies of those that advocate for the protection of civil liberties. He attempted to implement the T.I.P.S. program, he had the nude statue of Justice covered because of exposed breasts, he was a strong advocate of mandatory jail sentences for drug crimes, specifically marijuana charges, and he was a strong spokesman on the “War on Terror” in supporting the Patriot Act and performing press conferences where he warned of unknown, but impending attacks by Al Qaeda. It was assumed that his health problems, and wide unpopularity in an election year brought about his resignation, but current news is revealing that Mr. Ashcroft may have been more frictional than initially known. While in the hospital, and drugged after surgery, Mr. Ashcroft was approached by Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card to reauthorize the domestic wiretap program, Mr. Ashcroft refused.

Tommy G. Thompson:
Secretary of Health and Human Services 2001-2004

Mr. Thompson served as the Governor of Wisconsin for four consecutive terms, quite an accomplishment, oh and he left his state in debt. His work as Secretary was concentrated on finding a vaccine for the Bird Flu, but left office announcing that a pandemic was inevitable, and admitted surprise that American food supplies had not been subject to terrorism citing how easy it would be. Aside from his current presidential bid, I cannot find anything more about why he left office. Mr. Thompson stated that it was time to spend more time with his family.

Norman Y. Mineta
Secretary of Transportation 2001-2006

Mr. Mineta is the only Democrat to have served under President Bush, and was a holdover from President Clinton. He was also the longest serving Transportation Secretary in the department’s history. He is known for issuing the FAA airplane grounding order on September 11th 2001, the first and only time the United States has ever stopped all flights, over 4,000 airplanes were in the air at the time. Mr. Mineta resigned because “he wanted to”.

I’m looking over some of the notes, and websites that I’ve been using as reference, and the list of White House casualties is great indeed. I will continue with the list in further posts till I get to the end. Each major resignation will be recognized and remembered. The list is long, and we will persevere…

In a more somber sense it’s still important to recognize the significance of Memorial Day, and remember that the price for war is very high, human lives are valuable, and we can all universally recognize that value. When a day is nationally devoted to remembering that price, it is fitting, that during wartime our society also reflects on whether continued conflicts are worthy of that price as well, so as each reader goes to bed, ask yourself…

…was the war worth it all?

~C

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