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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 U.S. Government in Zabul Province. I
have served six of the previous ten years in service to our country
overseas, to include deployment as a U.S. Marine officer 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 U.S. casualties or expenditures of
resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a
35-year old civil war.
This fall wilt mark
the eighth year of U.S. 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 U.S. 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 advisers comprise drug lords and war
crimes villains, who mock our own rule of law and counternarcotics
efforts;
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A system of
provincial and district leaders constituted of local power brokers,
opportunists and strongmen allied to the United Stales solely for,
and limited by, the value of our USAID and CERP contracts and 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 misuderstanding 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 slated 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 U.S. Armed Forces. I do not
believe any military force has ever been tasked with such a complex,
opaque and Sisyphean mission as the U.S. 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 U.S. government
employees and contractors. who believe in and sacrifice for their
mission, but have been ineffectually trained and led with guidance and
intent shaped more by the political climate in Washington, D.C. 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 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, love 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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