Former Marine Now at State Resigns
Taylor Marsh — ... His name is Matthew Hoh and this could turn into a story that will haunt Pres. Obama’s decision on Afghanistan every day until the strategy is announced. I’m sure it is already. Hoh simply doesn’t believe in where the U.S. mission has been and where Obama is about to take the U.S. mission in ...

Afghanistan: Former Marine at State Resigns
Taylor Marsh — ... His name is Matthew Hoh and this could turn into a story that will haunt Pres. Obama’s decision on Afghanistan every day until the strategy is announced. I’m sure it is already. Hoh simply doesn’t believe in where the U.S. mission has been and where Obama is about to take the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. No doubt it will fuel people who want to withdraw, even as I continue to believe from all information I’ve gathered that no more troops is step one, with many complicated issues to address more important than sending in more U.S. soldiers. So, when Hoh ...

Afghan Run-Off Election the Kiss of Death?
Daily Kos — ... Meanwhile, the Washington Post is reporting that a Foreign Service officer has quit because of the Afghan War. Matthew Hoh had been a Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq, and also served at the Pentagon and State Department. He was widely seen as exactly the kind of smart, civil-military hybrid the administration says it wants in the occupation. ...

U.S. official resigns over Afghan war
Democratic Underground Latest Breaking News — ... resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency. "I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan," he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter to the department's head of personnel. "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." Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

The Note's Must-Reads for Tuesday, October 27, 2009
The Note — ... LINK The Associated Press: "First US official resigns to protest Afghan war" LINK The Wall Street Journal’s Peter Spiegel: “Kerry Urges Caution in Adding Troops” LINK Bloomberg’s Ed Johnson: “U.S. Anti-Drug Agents Among Victims of Afghan Helicopter Crash” LINK The New York Times’ Nicholas Kulish: “German Limits on War Are Facing Reality in Afghanistan” LINK The Washington Post’s Karen DeYoung: “U.S. official resigns over Afghan war” LINK The Washington Post’s Mary Beth Sheridan: “Kerry says McChrystal’s troop request reaches ...

John Kerry's Afghan war speech; Foreshadowing Obama's decision?
Top of the Ticket — ... ...fights with Fox News and the Chamber of Commerce. And the Washington Post reports this morning the first known resignation of a State Dept. official in disagreement with the administration's war's handling. ...

U.S. Official Resigns in Protest of Afghanistan War Policy
Politics Daily — ... Matthew Koh, the senior U.S. civilian in Afghanistan's Zubar province, resigned in protest because he believes the American effort there is simply fueling the insurgency, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. Koh, a former Marine Corps captain who also served in Iraq, wrote a ...

Need To Read: October 27, 2009
MoJo Blog Posts: mojo — ... Harry Reid's Public Option Politics (MoJo) Harry Reid, shopping for reelection insurance (WaPo) Think the ag lobby—with so much to lose from global warming—might want to help pass a climate bill? Don't be silly. (MoJo/Kevin Drum) Krugman: This thing is going to work (NYT) Chamber of Commerce uses Yes Men "attack" to fundraise (MoJo) US official resigns over Afghan war (WaPo) In Foreign Policy, Let's Play "Hard to Get" ...

Bye, Bipartisanship: Reid’s gambit forces centrists to choose sides
The Note — ... And while a tough road in Afghanistan adds speed bumps: With a resignation further limiting the president's running room, ...

ThinkFast: October 27, 2009
Think Progress — ... Foreign Service officer Matthew Roh has resigned in protest over the continuation of the Afghan war. “We want to have some kind of governance there, and we have some obligation for it not to be a bloodbath,” Hoh told the Washington Post. “But you have to draw the line somewhere, and say this is their problem to solve.” ...

Minor FSO Resigns, Panic Ensues
Outside The Beltway | OTB — ... An incredibly junior foreign service officer has resigned over disagreement with our AfPak policy, prompting a high level scramble within the administration and a long feature in the Washington Post. ...

Reason Morning Links: Senate Takes Up Public Option, Bush Speaks, Apology for "Driving While Speaking Spanish" Tickets
Hit & Run — ... State Department official resigns over war in Afghanistan. Senate health care bill will include public option, give states ability to opt out. The debut of George W. Bush, motivational speaker. Dallas police apologize for officers who ticketed Hispanics for not speaking English. Disney offers refund  to parents who purchased Baby Einstein videos. ...

Resigning in Protest
The New Republic blogs — A fascinating WashPost story on a Foreign Service officer who has resigned to protest what he feels is a pointless war in Afghanistan. A combat veteran who reportedly read deeply about the war, Matthew Hoh will be difficult for Afghanistan hawks to dismiss. Here's a key passage: Korengal and other areas, he said, taught him "how localized the insurgency was. I didn't realize that a group in this valley here has no connection with an insurgent group two kilometers away." Hundreds, maybe thousands, of groups across Afghanistan, he decided, had few ideological ties to the Taliban ...

LEADERSHIP: U.S. official resigns over Afghan war: Foreign Service officer and former Marine capta…
Instapundit — ... LEADERSHIP: U.S. official resigns over Afghan war: Foreign Service officer and former Marine captain says he no longer knows why his nation is fighting. ...

Does the Name John Brady Kiesling Ring a Bell?
The New Republic blogs — ... pretty much told Kiesling not to let the door hit him on the way out, the Obama administration put on a full-court press to keep Hoh inside the tent. And Hoh, who was a Marine in Iraq before he joined the Foreign Service and went to work as the senior U.S. civilian officer in Zabul province, does have a different profile from Kiesling, who spent his entire career in embassies, that could make him a more credible anti-war figure in the eyes of the American public. From Karen DeYoung's WaPo ...

Resignation
Jules Crittenden — ...  and Vice President Joe Biden’s foreign policy advisor are all over it. Read the whole thing at the  Washington Post . Surrender-happy lefty bloggers ...

US Official Resigns in Protest of Afghan War
Open Left - Quick Hits's RSS Feed — From WaPo: 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 month, in a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White House, Hoh, 36, became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency. "I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of ...

Obama Afghanistan Policy Update
RedState — ... Today’s front page is dominated by a story called US Official Resigns Over War in Afghanistan. The slug tells you what you need to know: ...

A Troubling Resignation
JustOneMinute — Matthew Hoh, a former Marine officer in Iraq turned Foreign Service Officer, has resigned in protest over our planned escalation in Afghanistan.  His background is impressive and his reasons are troubling. When Matthew Hoh joined the Foreign Service early this year, he was exactly the kind of smart civil-military hybrid the administration was looking for to help expand its development efforts in ...

Matthew Hoh Resigns
Matthew Yglesias — ... Matthew Hoh seems like just the sort of person a country needs to wage successful counterinsurgency. He was in the Marine Corps, served in Iraq, rose to the rank of Captain and then after leaving the military joined the Foreign Service. He was sent to Afghanistan and became the top civilian official in Zabul province. And he’s quit: ...

First U.S. diplomat resigns over Afghanistan, sending ripples through Obama White House
Top of the Ticket — ... According to the Washington Post, which broke the story this morning, senior officials reacted quickly to the defection. The U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan offered Hoh a job. He declined. Then ...

No military plan for being in Afghanistan
MyDD — ... This is a big story, about a Foreign Service officer and former Marine captain who wrote that he no longer knows why his nation is fighting in Afghanistan, and so has resigned. The WaPost has his ...

A Turning Point In Afghanistan?
LewRockwell.com Blog — Matthew Hoh, a mid-level U.S. Foreign Service Officer in Afghanistan has resigned because he questions “why” the U.S. is in Afghanistan, “and to what end.” I have often marvelled at FSO’s (State Department employees) who privately question a given policy, some of them with great logic and precision. Naturally, I suppose, since they are closest to the policy implementers. But they rarely express their disagreement, much less their criticism, in public. One of them, a very smart guy who was very critical (and properly so) of a certain decision, unloaded on me – privately, in my staff office at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I asked him why ...

Former Marine Captain Resigns in Protest of Afghanistan War
Commondreams.org Views — ... : Negative attitudes and the conditions that create them are the underlying sources of threats to America's national security . . . Direct American intervention in the Muslim world has paradoxically elevated the stature of and support for Islamic radicals. Hoh told ...

Past The Tipping Point In Afghanistan
Newshoggers.com — By Steve Hynd The guy who is making AfPak news today is Matthew Hoh, a fairly junior Foreign Service officer and former Marine officer who has resigned his post as the most senior U.S. civilian in the Zabul province of Afghanistan over the conduct of the occupation. Spencer Ackerman points to the central part of Hoh's case - that Afghanistan is already past the "tipping point" at which ...

The Generals Trap
Confederate Yankee — ... is abuzz over this article in the Washington Post . It seems that a former Marine Captain with combat experience in Iraq who had joined the State Department in the Zabul province of Afghanistan resigned in September becuase of waht he viewed as a pointless war. The official, Matthew Hoh, wrote in his letter of resignation:"I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan,"' he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter to the department's head of personnel. "I have doubts and reservations about our current ...

The View From Kabul
The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan — ... the resignation of Afghanistan Senior Civilian representative Matthew Hoh in context. Here is the WaPo's take on the story and here ( ...

Sen. Jack Reed: ‘Emerging Consensus' to Deploy More Training Troops in Afghanistan
The Note — ... Hoh last month left his post as the senior US civilian in Zabul province, writing that he had "lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan."  ...

Inciting Attack
baldilocks — ... attacks Tuesday in southern Afghanistan, making October the deadliest month of the war for U.S. forces since the 2001 invasion to oust the Taliban . In one of the insurgent assaults, seven Americans were killed while patrolling in armored vehicles , U.S. forces spokesman Lt. Col. Todd Vician said. He said an Afghan civilian died in the same attack. The eighth American was killed in a separate bombing elsewhere in the south, also while patrolling in a military vehicle, he said. …and demoralization . [L]ast month, in a move that has sent ...

Midday Open Thread
Daily Kos — ... from 9.30-3.30 at the Washington Court Hotel. The free event, which focuses on the need to build a clean, green, 21st-century American economy focused on the needs of working Americans, boasts an impressive speaker list -- including Sherrod Brown, Ed Rendell, Kate Gordon of the Apollo Alliance, Rich Trumka, and Leo Gerard of the Steelworkers. And rumor has it that Meteor Blades himself might even be in attendance.  Go! --Jake McIntyre The first of many? But last month, in a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White ...

Briefing Skipper: Honduras, Hoh, Iran, General Xu
The Cable — ... The State Department respects the right of employee and former Marine Corps Captain Mathew Hoh to resign in protest of the war in Afghanistan. Hoh was a political officer on a Provincial Reconstruction Team who signed on for a limited deployment in March. "I would draw a distinction between his situation and somebody who had been in the Foreign Service and had a stake in the Foreign Service for 20 years or more," Kelly said. ...

Tuesday's Mini-Report
Political Animal — ... : "Eight Americans died in combat in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, bringing October's total to 53 and making it the deadliest month for Americans in the eight-year war. September and October were both deadlier months overall for NATO troops." * The significance of Matthew Hoh's resignation in Afghanistan: "[I]n a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White House, Hoh, 36, became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency. 'I have lost understanding of and confidence in the ...

links for 2009-10-27
FullosseousFlap's Dental Blog — ... (tags: Obamacare joe_lieberman harry_reid) U.S. Official Michael Hoh resigns over Afghan war as Obama Ponders Troop Surge When Matthew Hoh joined the Foreign Service early this year, he ...

Taylor Marsh: What We Owe Afghanistan
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... Earlier in the week we found out that a former Marine and Foreign Service officer resigned over Obama's Afghan strategy, even as the President is about to announce his future plans for the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. Matthew Hoh isn't waiting, because none of it, as far as he's concerned, makes any sense. Hoh simply doesn't believe in where the U.S. mission has been and where Obama is about to take the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. ...and this is before the bombshell news that Bush-Cheney authorized the CIA to start paying Karzai's corrupt brother, with Pres. Obama continuing ...

State Department Official Throws in the Towel over Afghanistan
Weekly Standard Blog — ... This was bound to happen, as most American wars have experienced their share of mid to high level defections. This time around, State loses a talented FSO who was serving in one of the toughest regions in Afghanistan. ...

The Rude Pundit — ... Afghanistan long ago stopped being the "good war," if it ever was, in comparison to Iraq. It's barely a "war" at all. A war is an army fighting an army. The Taliban is a bunch of vaguely organized zealots who make the Vietcong look like the Redcoats. And the United States is merely in the middle of a long and violent internal conflict there, as former Foreign Service Officer Matthew Hoh said upon resigning over the "war." In other words, we are no ...

A War That Can't Be Won
DownWithTyranny! — ... who stood against the Obama supplemental war budget last June, there's the story of Matthew Hoh, a former Marine Corps captain with combat experience in Iraq who was working in the State Department's development efforts in Zabul province between Kandahar and Kabul. Last month Hoh resigned-- "the first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war, which he had come to believe simply fueled the insurgency." Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry and then Richard Holbrooke appealed to him to stay-- but to no avail. ...

A Tale of Two Marines
Op For — ... By now everyone has heard of Matthew Hoh, a former Marine and Iraq vet who loudly and publicly resigned from his post as the senior Foreign Service official in Zabul Province. ...

David Quigg: Basic Truths in Hoh Resignation Letter Were True When Hoh Took His Job
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... . We all, naturally, have heard of Zabul province. We all, naturally, had heard of Matthew Hoh long before the Washington Post ...

Gates of Vienna News Feed 10/29/2009
Gates of Vienna — ... U.S. Official Resigns Over Afghan War Foreign Service officer and former Marine captain says he no longer knows why his nation is fighting 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 month, in a move that has sent ripples all the way to the White House, Hoh, 36, ...

Sunday Breakfast Menu, Nov. 1, 2009
The Caucus — ... man, but a survivor, and sort of understands how in the rough-and-tumble of this,” he added. “So there are possibilities here and we ought to work with that.” On “State of the Union,” CNN’s John King gets more of the Republican outlook on Afghanistan, health care, and the economy from Representative John Boehner of Ohio, the House minority leader, and Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi. Later, Fareed Zakaria sits down with Matthew Hoh, a former State deparment official who resigned his post in Afghanistan to protest United States involvement there. Another of Mr. Obama’s ...

Round two (part two)
Mudville Gazette — ... Province ("one of the five or six provinces always vying for the most difficult and neglected," a State Department official said") on September 10, submitting a dramatic ...

Matthew Hoh: ‘I Firmly Believe That We Are Taking Part In A Civil War’ In Afghanistan
Think Progress — ... Last week, former Marine captain and State Department employee Matthew Hoh made headlines when he went public with his resignation from the administration over his opposition to the continuation of the war in Afghanistan. In a ...

AfPak-Iraq: Wrong War, Wrong Thinking
Commondreams.org Views — ... the insurgency was. I didn't realize that a group in this valley here has no connection with an insurgent group two kilometres away.' Hundreds, maybe thousands, of groups across Afghanistan, he decided, had few ideological ties to the Taliban but took its money to fight the foreign intruders and maintain their own local power bases. ‘That's really what shook me,' he said. ‘I thought it was more nationalistic. But it's localism. I would call it valley-ism'" (see Karen De Young, " U.S. official resigns over Afghan war ", Washington Post , 27 October 2009). The Barack Obama ...

Matthew Hoh: US Has Lost Track of Why It is In Afghanistan
The Washington Note — ... foreign service officer articulates what some of us on the outside have been saying about America's engagement in Afghanistan -- there is confusion about mission, a lack of focus on al Qaeda, a muddled picture of the contours and motivations of the Taliban, and embrace of a government that is not liked in many parts of the country. Hoh argues, along similar but more informed lines that I have, that we are embedded in the middle of a civil war. Read more about Matthew Hoh in this fascinating piece by the Washington Post's Karen DeYoung. -- Steve ...

Steve Clemons: Matthew Hoh: US Has Lost Track of Why It is In Afghanistan
Politics on HuffingtonPost.com — ... foreign service officer articulates what some of us on the outside have been saying about America's engagement in Afghanistan -- there is confusion about mission, a lack of focus on al Qaeda, a muddled picture of the contours and motivations of the Taliban, and embrace of a government that is not liked in many parts of the country. Hoh argues, along similar but more informed lines that I have, that we are embedded in the middle of a civil war. Read more about Matthew Hoh in this fascinating piece by the Washington Post's Karen DeYoung. -- Steve ...

Ambassador Opposes More Troops For Afghanistan
ParaPundit — ... we hold back additional US help then perhaps the Afghan government will clean up its act. Endemic corruption will recede. The populace will back the government and the tribes will stop battling it out. A long history of tribal politics will be replaced with nationalism and economic development. But such a development would mark a radical departure from Afghan history. A former Marine Corps captain who served in Iraq and then worked for the State Department in Afghanistan has resigned arguing that the US presence in Afghanistan fuels the insurgency. When Matthew Hoh joined the ...

Matthew Hoh on Eikenberry’s Afghanistan Cables: “I’m Not Surprised”
Firedoglake — ... Hoh, the former Marine Corps captain who served in a civilian capacity in eastern and southern Afghanistan and made headlines with his resignation, participated in a panel discussion on the eight-year war after a screening of Robert Greenwald’s “Rethink Afghanistan” last night in Los Angeles. He believes that there is a window of opportunity for those who want to stop the escalation in Afghanistan while Barack Obama muses over his decision. “We have a window. Maybe not to end the war tomorrow, but to make it a year instead of four or five years, and ...

The Missing Link From Killeen to Kabul
Commondreams.org Views — ... to PBS's "NewsHour" devoted to spewing his contempt for his American benefactors. Matthew Hoh, a former Marine and, until recently, a State Department official in Afghanistan, could be found on MSNBC on Thursday once again asking the question no war advocate can answer, "Do you want Americans fighting and dying for the Karzai regime?" Hoh quit his post on principle in September despite the urging of colleagues, including our ambassador there, Karl W. Eikenberry, that he stay and fight over war policy from the inside. But Hoh had lost confidence in our strategy and would not ...

In Exclusive Interview, Matthew Hoh Says Escalation in Afghanistan a “Terrible Way to Prove a Point”
Firedoglake — ... Hoh, 36, is the highest-ranking foreign service officer to resign his post in Afghanistan. A former Marine with two tours of duty in Iraq, Hoh spent five months in four separate provinces in the country, particularly Zabul Province, and quickly became disillusioned by the US presence and the point of the mission. So he publicly resigned, and in the months since has toured the country, raising awareness about the war and the need to reverse course. ...

Progressive Caucus Requests Meeting with President Obama to Rethink Afghanistan
Firedoglake — ... of the Afghan government, demonstrated and worsened by the stolen election, corruption in aid distribution and “foreign intelligence and security alliances.” The letter comes as the president prepares to announce his decision regarding the future of U.S. policy in Afghanistan. This is the latest of several high-profile attempts by current and former U.S. officials to push back against calls for another troop increase in Afghanistan: Matthew Hoh recently resigned his post as the top civilian official in Afghanistan’s Zabul ...