[American families] must be reassured their dead have sacrificed for a purpose worthy of futures lost, love vanished, and promised dreams unkept. I have lost confidence such assurances can be made any more.Matthew Hoh
Former Senior Civilian U.S. Representative in Afghanistan
This is a must-read article for anyone seeking to understand the situation on the ground in Afghanistan. It delves into the resignation of Matthew Hoh, the Senior Civilian Representative of the United States in Zabul Province, Afghanistan. Hoh’s letter of resignation (PDF) is a striking condemnation of the war in Afghanistan from a highly regarded veteran of both the conflict there and Iraq and his words are rattling the administration, at least as far up as Richard Holbrooke. We can only hope Obama is shaken, too. But as Hoh said, “I’m not some peacenik, pot-smoking hippie who wants everyone to be in love…there are plenty of dudes who need to be killed…I was never more happy than when our Iraq team whacked a bunch of guys.”
He is quite an interesting fellow and this is definitely worth the read.
#1 by Tom Lafferty on October 28, 2009 - 5:42 pm
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The Matthew Hoh article speaks to similar problem(s) we faced in the Viet Nam conflict. We need a plan to get out but as Ho indicated we do have a n obligation to make it as bloodless as possible. As we all know if we packed up and went home tomorrow there would surely be innumerable women and supporters of the slaughtered. That would fly in the face of the American soldiers who died to give them some of the rights they have attained.
#2 by Patrick T. Lafferty on October 28, 2009 - 5:51 pm
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I’ll just quote John Kerry when he returned home from Vietnam: “How do you ask a man to be the last one to die for a mistake?”
Or, if you prefer, because we just couldn’t figure out how to leave soon enough? Nope, that just isn’t a good enough reason. End war now!