WASHINGTON -- A former Marine who fought in Iraq, joined the State Department after leaving the military and was a diplomat in a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan has become the first U.S. official to resign in protest of the Afghan war, the Washington Post reported early Tuesday.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/27/official-resigns-protest-afghan-war/

I'm somewhat amazed because I actually met this guy when he was a Captain in Haditha. He was in a CH-46 that crashed in the lake next to Haditha Dam and managed to swim ashore still wearing his (roughly 30 lb) body armor.

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What specifically amazes you? That he resigned, wrote the letter, that it was published, or the content of the letter?

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1984 300TD

The quote where he says US presence is just fueling the insurgency is a stance I do not agree with by itself. However, I can see why he might think that if troop levels are not raised sufficiently enough to restore order.

My nephew who is stationed in Iraq is losing confidence as well. And he says that morale is slipping. They are afraid their work over all these years is going to end up having been in vain.

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The US presence does cause fighting. Without it, some fighting at least will go away.

You should tell your nephew that nothing that happens in the future can change his/their accomplishments while there.

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1984 300TD

What worries me is the real possibility that if we stay 20 more years, we'll still find out it's been in vain.

The hydra headed beast phenomenon is hard to get away from. As much as I hate those woman beating Taliban pukes I'm not sure we can wipe them out directly. Anyone who aids or participates with us is going to look like turncoat. We'll just end up spending major blood and treasure to drive the people further into the Taliban's hold.

And now the "elected" govt. in Afg. is looking a lot like the corrupt regimes we tried to prop up in Nam.

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It's going to end up "in vain" anyway. The biggest mistake was the first mistake, invading Iraq in the first place. Here is the embarassing truth: there really is no such country as "Iraq". The place is a made-up fiction, a geo-politic device implemented by the US and Great Britain a long time ago, for the purpose of keeping the Arab world divided and a huge pool of oil under western control. They purposefully cobbed together a country out of three factions that have been at each other's throats for centuries. The only way to keep the place together is by bloodshed. From it's inception in the early 20th Century, it was the British who directed the slaughter and believe it or not, it was not Saddam Hussein who was the first person to use poison gas on the civilians of the area, it was them, in the 1920's. After the British were driven out the place was ruled by a succession of dictators until the last one, Hussein, fell out of favor with us, so we stepped in to personally direct the slaughter ourselves. Today, we and our puppets are the ones who keep this place together through fascism, bribery and torture. The day we walk out, the place will collapse.

The only humane thing to do is let it. That way Mesopotamia, Basra and Kurdistan can separate into it's three natural countries and join up with Arabia and Iran if they want. Until then, this basket case mess will always be just that.

State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly clarified for the press that Hoh was not a commissioned Foreign Service Officer. He said that while he does not want to diminish all of the personal sacrifices Hoh made both as a marine and during his four months as a non-career employee with the State Department, it was important to recognize the difference between his resignation and the resignations of Foreign Service Officers who had years invested in careers in the Department.

To date, he said, while there have been resignations of FSOs in protest over Iraq and Bosnia, NO Foreign Service Officers have resigned over Afghanistan.

JR..you nailed it dead-nuts.
Excellant write-up.

JC

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CHILCUTT~
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More the fact that somebody I met and indirectly worked with made national news. I am somewhat surprised at his assesment of the situation, but he's over there and I'm not, so I'm sure he's seen information that I haven't.

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Whoever said there's nothing more expensive than a cheap Mercedes never had a cheap Jaguar.

83 300D Turbo with manual conversion, early W126 vented front rotors and H4 headlights 401,xxx miles
08 Suzuki GSX-R600 M4 Slip-on 26,xxx miles
88 Jaguar XJS V12 94,xxx miles. Work in progress.
99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.

Ah.

I really hope that this time we learn our lesson and follow through on supporting the things that improve lives. We keep getting burned by these policies that ignore the aftermath - the real issues - after the short term military action.

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1984 300TD

My oldest Son fought in that UNEEDED war and received two purple hearts for his effort. We don't need to be there. And NOW the Republicans want more troops sent there. Politics aside, wait until your son or daughter is sent there. I smell Vietnam all over again.

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I think in this case, we need to take a lesson from the Russians. They expended huge amounts of money, lives, and hardware. They took no prisoners, didn't give a crap about civilians, and showed no restraint in killing their adversaries.

In the end they lost everything and gained nothing.

The questions that needs to be asked is : What do we stand to gain from a prolonged and costly war in Afganistan? What's our exit stagedy? Will the peace last after we leave, if ever?

The same questions also need to be asked about Iraq.

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Yea I seen it as well , he is only one, wait till the one term dude starts pointing fingers at the guys who were running the war, before he put an end to that, and its all their fault this month is the greatest loss of American life of the war that's right the last 8 years right now and the month is not over yet --

The officers will not abandon their troops , they will stay and loose their pensions first,
and that I believe is coming as well, he's telling private sector how much they can earn and who has a job and who does not as they see it ( his admin ) yea the government bought those company's with the bail outs, OUR MONEY and now are de facto runing all the banks and autos cept ford, its unreal to the extent a government who can give the masses all they want can also take all they have --

He is right, I agree with him. Its not a war you can win with bullets.

I know an Afghan who is fairly recent imigrant and he agrees with this assesment. He said the insurgancy isn't a military problem, its an economic problem. IE their are NO jobs, so they fight insted.

I rather us get out while we still have a functioning military and money, rather than wait 10 years until we are forced to.

The end is the same, we leave, they fight, governments change. All we are doing is delaying this.

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