Matthew Hoh, a former Marine captain decorated for his bravery in combat, an recently a Foreign Service officer, resigns in a protest over the Afghan war. Having spent much time in Iraq and Afghanistan, both as an officer, and as a civilian, he came to the conclusion that our presence in Afghanistan only fuels the local guerrilla war against the invaders and strengthens the positions of the Taliban. He is convinced that not only we are fighting the war we cannon win, but that the results of our war in Afghanistan are opposite of what we were trying to achieve. It turns out that the level of violence actually surges when the American troops are present. One can win a war against some organized armed force, but not a war against much of the population which you failed to convince to support you. Americans are in essence fighting and dying in a local civil war between an secular urban citizens of Afghanistan and the religeous rural population. At this point the insurgency against the American presence is not managed from one "center" - it is spontaneous and omnipresent. We are much hated by the Afghan pepople also because we are supporting the corrupt government of Hamid Karzai. From his extensive experience, Matthew Hoh can no longer justify our military presence in Afghanistan. You can read more on the story here. As one of the commentators noted on the Newsvine forum discussing this news, "The US WILL lose this war, just like every other war-mongering empire has lost a war in Afghanistan in the past and once again we will have learned absolutely nothing. In the process, thousands more American kids will die, thousands of innocent civilians will be slaughtered, and thousands more will be permanently scarred just so some defense contractor can make a profit, and a few people can get re-elected. "
Matthew Hoh - a true American Hero.
I recently talked to a wife of a soldier being deployed in Iraq and she told me that these deployments are scheduled many many months out to allow people to get a leave from work, prepare their families for this change, etc. So all the military people knew that promises of reducing US presence in Afghanistan and Iraq given out during the presidential debates were useless.
ReplyDeleteGiven that information and the high unemployment in US, I highly doubt that there will be any reductions in US forces present in those two countries. This is extremely unfortunate, because as you point out, we are fighting a pointless war we cannot win, American soldiers are dying and all for economic and political purposes (company profits, avoiding additional unemployment, re-election of officials)