Resignation Letter from US Foreign Service Officer Matthew P. Hoh
October 28, 2009
US Foreign Service Officer Matthew P. Hoh,
Senior Civilian Representative, Afghanistan
September 10, 2009
Ambassador Nancy J. Powell
Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources
U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20520
Dear Ambassador Powell,
It is with great regret and disappointment I submit my resignation from my
appointment as a Political Officer in the Foreign Service and my post as the
Senior Civilian Representative for the US Government in Zabul Province. I have
served six of the previous ten years in service to our country overseas, to
include deployment as a US Marine office and Department of Defense civilian in
the Euphrates and Tigris River Valleys of Iraq in 2004-2005 and 2006-2007. I
did not enter into this position lightly or with any undue expectations nor did
I believe my assignment would be without sacrifice, hardship or difficulty.
However, in the course of my five months of service in Afghanistan, in both
Regional Commands East and South, I have lost understanding of and confidence
in the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan. 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. To put simply: I
fail to see the value or the worth in continued US casualties or expenditures
of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year
old civil war.
This fall will mark the eighth year of US combat, governance and development
operations within Afghanistan. Next fall, the United States’ occupation will
equal in length the Soviet Union’s own physical involvement in Afghanistan.
Like the Soviets, we continue to secure and bolster a failing state, while
encouraging an ideology and system of government unknown and unwanted by its
people.
If the history of Afghanistan is one great stage play, the United States is no
more than a supporting actor, among several previously, in a tragedy that not
only pits tribes, valleys, clans, villages and families against one another,
but, from at least the end of King Zahir Shah’s reign, has violently and
savagely pitted the urban, secular, educated and modern of Afghanistan against
the rural, religious, illiterate and traditional. It is this latter group that
composes and supports the Pashtun insurgency. The Pashtun insurgency, which is
composed of multiple, seemingly infinite, local groups, is fed by what is
perceived by the Pashtun people as a continued and sustained assault, going
back centuries, on Pashtun land, culture, traditions and religion by internal
and external enemies. The US and NATO presence and operations in Pashtun
valleys and villages, as well as Afghan army and police units that are led and
composed of non- Pashtun soldiers and
police, provide an occupation force against which the insurgency is justified.
In both RC East and South, I have observed that the bulk of the insurgency
fights not for the white banner of the Taliban, but rather against the presence
of foreign soldiers and taxes imposed by an unrepresentative government in
Kabul.
The United States military presence in Afghanistan greatly contributes to the
legitimacy and strategic message of the Pashtun insurgency. In a like manner
our backing of the Afghan government in its current form continues to distance
the government from the people. The Afghan government’s failings, particularly
when weighed against the sacrifice of American lives and dollars, appear legion
and metastatic:
Glaring corruption and unabashed graft;
A President whose confidants and chief advisors comprise drug lords and war
crimes villains, who mock our own rule of law and counternarcotics efforts;
A system of provincial and district leaders constituted of local power brokers,
opportunists and strongmen allied to the United States solely for, and limited
by, the value of our USAID and CERP contracts and for whose own political and
economic interests stand nothing to gain from any positive or genuine attempts
at reconciliation; and
The recent election process dominated by fraud and discredited by low voter
turnout, which has created an enormous victory for our enemy who now claims a
popular boycott and will call into question worldwide our government’s
military, economic and diplomatic support for an invalid and illegitimate
Afghan government.
Our support for this kind of government, coupled with a misunderstanding of the
insurgency’s true nature, reminds me horribly of our involvement with South
Vietnam; an unpopular and corrupt government we backed at the expense of our
Nation’s own internal peace, against an insurgency whose nationalism we
arrogantly and ignorantly mistook as a rival to our own Cold War ideology.
I find specious the reasons we ask for bloodshed and sacrifice from our young
men and women in Afghanistan. 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.
Our presence in Afghanistan has only increased destabilization and insurgency
in Pakistan where we rightly fear a toppled or weakened Pakistani government
may lose control of its nuclear weapons. However, again, to follow the logic of
our stated goals we should garrison Pakistan, not Afghanistan. More so, the
September 11th attacks, as well as the Madrid and London bombings, were
primarily planned and organized in Western Europe; a point that highlights the
threat is not one tied to traditional geographic or political boundaries.
Finally, if our concern is for a failed state crippled by corruption and
poverty and under assault from criminal and drug
lords, then if we bear our military and financial contributions to
Afghanistan, we must reevaluate and increase our commitment to and involvement
in Mexico.
Eight years into war, no nation has ever known a more dedicated, well trained,
experienced and disciplined military as the US Armed Forces. I do not believe
any military force has ever been tasked with such a complex, opaque and
Sisyphean mission as the US military has received in Afghanistan. The tactical
proficiency and performance of our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines is
unmatched and unquestioned. However, this is not the European or Pacific
theaters of World War II, but rather is a war for which our leaders, uniformed,
civilian and elected, have inadequately prepared and resourced our men and
women. Our forces, devoted and faithful, have been committed to conflict in an
indefinite and unplanned manner that has become a cavalier, politically
expedient and Pollyannaish misadventure. Similarly, the United States has a
dedicated and talented cadre of civilians, both US government employees and
contractors, who believe in and sacrifice for their
mission, but they have been ineffectually trained and led with guidance and
intent shaped more by the political climate in Washington, DC than in Afghan
cities, villages, mountains and valleys.
"We are spending ourselves into oblivion" a very talented and intelligent
commander, one of America’s best, briefs every visitor, staff delegation and
senior officer. We are mortgaging our Nation’s economy on a war, which, even
with increased commitment, will remain a draw for years to come. Success and
victory, whatever they may be, will be realized not in years, after billions
more spent, but in decades and generations. The United States does not enjoy a
national treasury for such success and victory.
I realize the emotion and tone of my letter and ask that you excuse any ill
temper. I trust you understand the nature of this war and the sacrifices made
by so many thousands of families who have been separated from loved ones
deployed in defense of our Nation and whose homes bear the fractures, upheavals
and scars of multiple and compounded deployments. Thousands of our men and
women have returned home with physical and mental wounds, some that will never
heal or will only worsen with time. The dead return only in bodily form to be
received by families who must be reassured their dead have sacrificed for a
purpose worthy of futures lost, loved vanished, and promised dreams unkept. I
have lost confidence such assurances can anymore be made. As such, I submit my
resignation.
Sincerely,
Matthew P. Hoh
Senior Civilian Representative
Zabul Province, Afghanistan
Cc: Mr. Frank Ruggiero
Ms. Dawn Liberi
Ambassador Anthony Wayne
Ambassador Karl Eikenberry
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