A former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, Hoh had also served in uniform at the Pentagon, and as a civilian in Iraq and at the State Department. By July, he was the senior U.S. civilian in Zabul province, a Taliban hotbed. But last Full Story »
Posted by Kaizar Campwala - via Washington Post , Drudge Report, Digg, Publish2 (World), Memeorandum
A controversial story, one I have trouble rating. DeYoung absolutely could have written this more carefully. I'm surprised at how many seemingly unchecked quotes the Post allowed Hoh, and I question how much of his back story is relevant to his resignation. Nevertheless, an important piece with plenty of information about its key figure.
With “multiple, seemingly infinite, local groups,” he wrote, the insurgency “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 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.” American families, he said at the end of the letter, “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.”
I believe strongly that the United States should withdraw troops from Afghanistan.