US Official Resigns Over Afghan War
Matthew Hoh, the senior US official in Taliban-infested Zabul province, is the first American official to resign over the Afghan war.
A former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, Hoh had also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department.
In September he wrote a letter to the State Department’s head of personnel.
“I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan,” he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter to the department’s head of personnel. “I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end.”
Hoh is not exactly a pot-smoking hippie:
“There are plenty of dudes who need to be killed,” he said of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. “I was never more happy than when our Iraq team whacked a bunch of guys.”
But many Afghans, he wrote in his resignation letter, are fighting the United States largely because its troops are there — a growing military presence in villages and valleys where outsiders, including other Afghans, are not welcome and where the corrupt, U.S.-backed national government is rejected. While the Taliban is a malign presence, and Pakistan-based al-Qaeda needs to be confronted, he said, the United States is asking its troops to die in Afghanistan for what is essentially a far-off civil war.
Hoh says we should reduce forces in Afghanistan and focus more on Pakistan.
Absolutely.
I agree with Hoh.
We went there to stop the training camps and Al Qaeda recruitment on the borderland hills.
But obviously we neglected this goal and decided attacking a country not connected with WMDs or 9/11 was a better strategy than doing what many top experts agree is the best way to combat terrorism.
So if we are not fighting terrorism, and not fighting Al Qaeda and The Taliban … then what are we doing?
Nation-building?
Okay, but how much of our money are we going to spend?
And for how long will we sacrifice our troops?
–
I would resign too.
A military without a goal is a occupying force.
October 27th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
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October 27th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
He has a point. Obama cant sit on this any longer.
October 27th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Matthew Hoh: “But many Afghans, he wrote in his resignation letter, are fighting the United States largely because its troops are there — a growing military presence in villages and valleys where outsiders, including other Afghans, are not welcome and where the corrupt, U.S.-backed national government is rejected.”
The crux of the problem.
October 27th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
so..um?? just how long before Rush calls this brave man a “Phoney soldier”?
October 28th, 2009 at 9:35 am
[...] US Official Resigns Over Afghan War (alan.com) [...]
October 30th, 2009 at 9:23 am