"I have lost confidence"
A principled resignation and doubts about Afghanistan
"I have lost confidence"
Dick Polman, Inquirer National Political Columnist
It's one thing to hear a liberal politician or commentator make the case for a reduced American military footprint in Afghanistan; one would expect such a messenger to proffer that message. It's another thing entirely to hear the same arguments from a former Marine Corps captain, somebody who survived combat in Iraq to become a respected Foreign Service officer and a senior U.S. advisor in Afghanistan.
Actually, Mattthew Hoh is no longer on the job. He quit on Sept. 10, telling the State Department in his four-page resignation letter (which surfaced publicly this week) that the U.S. occupation in Afghanistan is a counterproductive mistake, that our continued - and potentially enhanced - military presence is merely fueling the insurgency that we are seeking to extinguish, wasting more American lives and money in the process.
In his written words, "I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan...(Grieving 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."
He says the insurgency is actually comprised of hundreds of localized groups that care little about the Taliban or al Qaeda; rather, they care mostly about fighting the American occupier - which, in turn, is perceived as propping up the corrupt Karzai regime. As Hoh writes, "the Afghan government's failings, particularly when weighed against the sacrifice of American lives and dollars, appear legion and metastic..."
Hoh is starting to attract some public attention, deservedly so. It is exceedingly rare that anybody in government resigns a key post on a point of principle; dissidents typically swallow their qualms, stay on the job, and try to work within the system to mitigate the damage they have witnessed...generally, to no avail. (Case in point: Colin Powell during the Bush years.) Obama's foreign policy people reportedly pleaded with Hoh to stay "inside the building," but he opted to go outside.
Hoh's stated aim is to reportedly put grassoots pressure on Congress - from "people in Iowa, people in Arkansas, people in Arizona" - to resist any escalation of the American military presence, and in turn provide President Obama with the necessary first-hand evidence to resist the current entreaties of the war hawks.
"I find specious the reasons we ask for bloodshed and sacrifice from our young men and women in Afghanistan," he writes in his resignation letter. "If honest, our stated strategy of securing Afghanistan to prevent al Qaeda resurgence or regrouping would require us to additionally invade and occupy western Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, etc." His advice today is that Obama reduce combat forces in Afghanistan, pour more resources into Pakistan, and squeeze Karzai to clean up his corruption ("you have to draw the line somewhere, and say 'this is their problem to solve'").
Nowithstanding the qualifications of people like Gen. Stanley McChrystal and Sen. John McCain to make the case for a wider war, one cannot so easily dismiss a guy who (a) served as America's senior military advisor in a Taliban stronghold province, (b) earned a citation for "uncommon bravery" as a Marine captain in Iraq, (c) served in uniform at the Pentagon, (d) is praised these days by the American embassy in Kabul as "a thoughtful man who has rendered selfless service to our country," and (e) describes himself, in The Washington Post, as the precise opposite of "some peacenik, pot-smoking hippie who wants everyone to be in love." Indeed, Hoh tells The Post, "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."
Maybe the Hoh story will flame out by week's end, since ultimately he's just a junior player who opted to leave the field. But given this messenger's creds, and the weight of his message, and his fears that America is teetering on the edge of another foreign quagmire, is it any wonder that Obama continues to deliberate?
So we outnumber the enemy 10:1, and we need more troops? It seems more likely we need a better strategy.— SteveMG- still_independent, from yesterday's post re clunkers. Government spending is not how stimulus should work when it is so termporary. Many believe all it did was shift car purchases from a later month. The GDP growth was spurred, as every write up of it I have seen stated, temporary government spending programs. The only problem is that it did not spur any private sector investment. Economists say nearly half of the growth was from clunkers, but that is not going to repeat this quarter, so what will replace it? Much was also from housing purchases with the home-buyer credit, but that program is also due to end, and housing was down in September. So what will replace that portion? Just like the tax credits of Bush in 2008 only provided growth for one quarter, these government programs may have the same legacy unless private sector consumption and investment gets moving. Then the growth will be real.— tom - wilmington, de
- House released their healthcare bill today. It costs less than $900 Billion and reduces the deficit by $110 Billion over 10 years. Ooops, wait a minute. The bill does not include the Medicare "doctor fix", at a cost of $250 Billion. So, it only cost less than $900 Billion and reduces the deficit BECAUSE it leaves some stuff out. The bill also includes a 5.4% surtax on singles making more than $500K and couples making more than $1 million. This on top of the tax hike (ooops, sorry, Nancy said it is the removal of a tax break, not a tax hike) of 4% next year. So that is a tax increase of 9.4% next year. Yeah, this economy is just going to take off.— tom - wilmington, de
- swedesboromike: @6:36pm 10/29/2009 i'll pass on that. i prefer when you're asleep. you make more sense.— jimy_max
- I'll be perfectly honest. I'm not at all worried about the Taliban. They espouse the philosophy of the right wing (hatred, put God above common sense, business- i.e. drugs above health) and they are about as effective.— HandNik
- HandNik: @7:14pm 10/29 you make a valid point. put a turban on the Right Wing(nuts) and what do you get? the Taliban. brothers from different mothers.— jimy_max
- As public health officials scramble to find more flu vaccine and experts debate how to increase the U.S. supply The severe shortage the United States now faces is President Obama's fault.
- The MSM hopes to keep these stories buried on page 7. Those darn judgmental Christians! http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-10-28-fbi-raid_N.htm
- swedesboromike: @6:36pm 10/29 you're a real D.i.c.k (Cheney) man. you love putting brave young Americans in peril while you live a cozy existence. you love spilling other people's blood but i'd bet you'd complain if you got a paper cut. you are a child playing video games with other people's real lives. you are an unfortunate, selfish so-called American.— jimy_max
- Jimy- I was in the reserves from 1988 until 1996. I know how it sucks to have to leave your civilian life for the Army. That's why we should commit the resources that Obama's hand picked General requests or get the heck out.
- Do you people even know how our government works? There's a reason a civilian runs the military. And why only a civilian can be commander-in-chief of said military. It's because the military is explicitly not allowed to shape or make policy in any way, shape or form. They give their assessment, and then they do whatever they are told to do. And that is a sacred duty to any military officer. Matthew Hoh served his country, and apparently did it well according to his former superiors. Now, the right is so eager to attack a veteran, even when they at the same time shout traitor at the left. Let me get this straight; Gen. McChrystal knows more about the war in Afghanistan than an official serving on the front lines? He may have a broader, more strategic view, but he probably doesn't have the understanding that an official like Hoh could have. Has McChrystal seen what Hoh has seen? No, because he has NEVER been in combat. He has never killed a man for his country, or watched one of his friends die. Those are both things Hoh has done, and isn't ashamed in any way. He is proud of his service, but he felt he could no longer serve an unwinnable mission. He no longer was in the military, so he had no solemn right to carry out his job at any cost. What he reports from the frontlines of the war are disturbing. Can we win this war? What even is victory? How long will it take? As we ask those questions, October was the deadliest month in post-invasion casualties for Americans. We're broke, yet we throw money into the valleys of Afghanistan, getting back only distrust and death. It's an unwinnable war, and Matthew Hoh's insight into the situation can not be ignored.— Logathis
- swedesboromike : first, thanks for your service. sincerely. now, explain to me how a vaccine shortage is Obama's fault?— still_independent
- swedesboromike/NEPhilly: this whole "Iraq as a lightning rod" thing would be funny if it weren't so sadly revisionist. Here's your homework assignment. Find me ANY mention of this "strategy" prior to the invasion. Even amongst the pundits, let alone the administration. Yes, our invasion did draw in al-Qaeda along with a multitude of foreign fighters and a bevy of home-grown Iraqi insurgents. But this was NEVER the intent. Now perhaps "We'll be welcomed as liberators" was code for "a couple of hundred thousand pi**ed-off muslims will kill four thousand of our troops", but I'm not buying it. Your homework assignments still stands.— still_independent
- Still Independent- That entire quote was taken from a left wing blog from 2004 . I deleted Bush and added Obama. Specifically to show what the left was doing to Bush. I figured this would be your comeback. Just google Bush and the Avian flu vaccine and you see plenty of non-sensical blame for President Bush.
- Still Independent- You gotta admit I got you good with the quote from 2004 blaming a slow delivery of a vaccine on President Bush.
Cited by the Columbia Journalism Review as one of the nation's top political reporters, and lauded by the ABC News political website as "one of the finest political journalists of his generation," Dick Polman is a national political columnist at the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is on the full-time faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, as "writer in residence." Dick has been a frequent guest on C-Span, MSNBC, CNN, NPR and the BBC. He covered the 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004 presidential campaigns.
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