Matthew Hoh, a former Marine who fought in Iraq is the first US official to resign in protest of the Afghanistan war. Hoh joined the State Department after leaving the military and served in a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan. Hoh believes the war is fueling the uprising in Afganistan.
Hoh’s resignation ended last week, and although he has been offered and accepted another job from the State Department, he turned it down a week later. In an interview on Friday, Hoh said: "I recognize the career implications, but it wasn't the right thing to do," the Washington Post reported.
Parts of Matthew Hoh’s resignation letter (see full link to letter below):
"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."
“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 more Afghans 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, the United States is asking its troops to die in Afghanistan for what is essentially a far-off civil war.”
Obama said yesterday that he will not be rushed into making a decision about the war in Afghanistan,
“I will never rush the solemn decision of sending you into harm's way. I won't risk your lives unless it is absolutely necessary," Obama said at the Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Florida.
Obama has been in a debate about whether to send an additional 40,000 troops to the Afghanistan in an attempt to curb the Taliban-led uprising.
To view a full copy of Matthew Hoh’s letter, click here.
Sources: Washington Post and The Press Association
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