Obama Should Tear Up Matthew Hoh's Afghan War Resignation Letter

President Obama should tear up former Marine Matthew Hoh's resignation letter. Hoh is an American hero. Hoh is the first US official to resign in disgust over the Administration's wrong-headed course in fighting the Afghan war. He told Obama exactly what he needs to hear about Afghanistan: that the Afghan war is a failed, flawed, no-win war. That it's a sinkhole for billions of tax dollars and a death trap for hundreds, maybe thousands, of US troops. This is all to prop up a hopelessly corrupt, dope profiteering, unpopular regime. It's a war that outside of a handful of hard headed generals, unreconstructed Bush neo-cons, and GOP ideologues few Americans think is worth fighting.

Obama is somewhere in the middle of the mess. At one time he was gung ho to fight in Afghanistan no matter the costs. He's now not so sure. He's had a plan on his desk for weeks to dump more money and troops into the country, and every day the generals pester him to do it. His uncertainty about it has turned into a stall of the generals who yap at his heels to escalate the war. But his stall hasn't turned into a toughened stomach lining that would allow him to say no to escalation, and then get the wheels turning to get the US out of the no-win war. Obama's tin ear to Hoh's warning about flawed administration policy could be disastrous politically and personally for him.

A majority of Obama's most fervent backers have gently chided him for his blindness on the war. These are the supporters he will need in order to beat back the GOP counterinsurgency against him, to make gains or at least cut potential Democratic losses in the midterm elections in 2010, and to back his shaky health care reform package. Afghanistan looms large as Obama and the Democratic Party's Vietnam, if Hoh's warning is not heeded.

Public shell shock over unpopular wars always works to the advantage of the challenger over the incumbent president whose name is linked to the war. The unpopular Korean and Vietnam wars helped do in Truman and the Democrats in 1952, and President Johnson and the Democrats in 1968. They also had a tsunami effect on Democratic elected officials. In both election years, the Democrats had a decisive edge over the Republicans in Congress, a wide body of public support, and political prestige. Eisenhower, and later Nixon, painted Korea and Vietnam as a hopeless muddle that Truman and Humphrey (in tandem with Johnson) made a mess of. The two Democratic presidents paid dearly for it, and Bush and the Republicans paid just as dearly for the Iraq quagmire.

Despite Obama's talk about Afghanistan being the right war, in the right place, at the right time, White House insiders say that he's worried about getting stuck with this unpopular war. He knows that failed and flawed wars and the public's distaste for those wars helped topple two sitting Democratic presidents, and hopelessly discredited a Republican president. He doesn't want to make the mistake of repeating their fatal history.

Matthew Hoh has served notice on Obama of this danger. He should reject his resignation letter.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. His forthcoming book, How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge (Middle Passage Press) will be released in January 2010.

 

Comments

[Seafoam]

Mr Hoh was only in Afghanistan for 6 months and doesn't have a lot of foreign policy or counterinsurgency experience. He is only 36.

The Taliban are really bad extremists. They are really scary. See the Charlie Rose interview with the NY Times journalist who was captured by a Taliban group A Muslim version of the KKK. It is good to take them on where they operate before they destabilize Pakistan further, continue to offer sanctuaries for foreign terrorists and get hold of nuclear weapons for themselves and Al Queda.. See the European documentary The Bloody Cartoon for a revelation of the thinking of Islamic extremists....in Turkey, Lebanon, Syria, Qatar, etc. The Taliban is a real cancer that I am hoping the Muslim world itself will get rid of, much like Christians suppressed their violent, Christian extremists.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/26/matthew-hoh-resigns-state_n_334840.html

[Galvan]

Mr. Hoh is a true American with enough sense to say what he feels is correct and not politically. Why are we in Afghanistan seeing our young men murdered for a cause that is not legitimate? Seems like the only updates we get in this fight for whatever are the number of soldiers or marines who are murdered and only the undertakers benefit from this. We cannot force a country to think like us and live like us. Leave them alone if this is what they want. If this is a war for democracy where are the rest of the nations who believe in democracy at? We have problems in our country where this men could be used more effectively. We have a problem with our own borders where drug cartels and illegal immigrants are wreaking havoc on our economy. If we can't win this war so close to our country how are we to win one far away in unfamiliar territory. Bring the Troops Home Now!

[Orwellian]

This intelligent, analytical and heartfelt letter of resignation encompasses one man’s first hand view of the current situation on the ground. I imagine that he has already mentally entertained all manner of reactions to his assessment such as that spun by Fox, as if Fox would have any informed idea what level this man actually functioned at; not that they appear to care if it doesn’t support their skew that they then somehow manage to relabel ‘fair and balanced.’ No man wishes to resign. This man writes it with the utmost and noble hope that someone is listening, and he is falling on his own sword to ensure that someone does hear his message. What I do know is that this honest letter, love it or hate it, will appear in the annals of history as representing the actuality that is this current war in Afghanistan. The letter writer’s queried ‘Why, and to what end’ will be seen far more clearly in that future, based on post-war candor in the light of day as is Viet Nam, still ever unfolding in man’s dwindling days to unload his conscience.

[Miltdog]

I agree that President Obama is hurting himself in the long run if he escalates the war and increases troop levels in Afghanistan. His base deplores our presence there, and that alone could lead to a bad midterm election for him if he does not acquiesce to their desires. Obama was elected because of the tireless work of the progressive movement and their involvement in new media. If the war does not have any apparent end in sight, these progressives will feel more apathetic when solicited by email, phone call, and direct mail to donate to the campaigns of, and do the fieldwork for, Democratic candidates.

Almost no al Qaeda operatives or members are left in Afghanistan. Our troops are being killed fighting Taliban insurgents. The Taliban has no specific arguments or beef with the United States, except for our presence in the country. Hamid Karzai is a pathetically weak and ineffective leader and his brother has been paid by the CIA for eight years. Brother Karzai is a drug-trafficker who has made money selling opium. Why are we supporting him?

All these considerations taken together indicate to me that we don't have a useful (and possibly not even a legitimate) purpose in Afghanistan. We should have left years ago. Every day we stay is a day closer to moral and financial bankruptcy for the United States. We can't support the war, we can't afford the war, we can't continue the war.

[TJCole]

An endless "Sinkhole" is exactly what the Bankers that run our nation want, it's perfect, it's their kind of War...endless and unwinable...That's a Wall St. War in a nut shell..!

[december30]

How come Earl Hutchinson want go back into hiding where he belongs?

[Rog49Thomas]

I believe he should tear up McChrystal's plan instead and start bringing 'em home.

[cecebo]

Amen to that.

[lightningbolt]

The U.S. is in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting for corporate profits. Until we get rid of bribery (aka private campaign finance), this country's military will continue to be used for corporate profits. Defense companies, oil companies and banks are all making a killing from these wars. The taxpayers and the soldiers are paying the price.

[Balzac]

I'd like to add that Kabul should be kept secure. What if all these international troops were in Kabul instead of all over the country? I think Kabul's citizenry would feel cozy with a NATO presence in Kabul, but it doesn't seem necessary all over Afghanistan.

[Balzac]

Maybe the real sticking point is that the Taliban need to agree to allow the poppies to be grown. Drugs are good, and religious zealotry is not good.

Now that President Obama is in charge, a lot of people are wondering how politics have changed. I'm really working my social cortex lately.

Let's disengage and see what happens. Strategic retreat is not defeat. We cannot be defeated. Grab glory.

[Thuso]

Earl, you have correctly pointed to a "voice to be listened to."

Matthew Hoh is te first volley to be acknowledged that should wake us up to the futility of this effort. those in denial keep saying, "This is not like Viet Nam." The reality is that there is no exit strategy that can be spun as victory.

Those who were hailing the "surge" in Iraq are seeing now that there is no permanent victory in this mix of religiuos, political, and terror-driven anger against the USA. There can only be an exit with minimum consequences. We will no be hailed as liberators, rahter, remembered as those who left behind more death and destruction than we found. Mathew Hoh said the Afghans view us as "occupiers." It boils down to living iwth the devil we know or the devil who will abandon us.

There is no easy answer. The decisions about how to approach our future relations with this region -- Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Iran -- are hanging in the balance. Meanwhile, we keep turning a blind eye to the critical importance of a Palestinian/Israeli solution to the overall solution.

Until we connect all the dots, this nightmare will continue for the foreseeable future.

[Debater Corey]

We shouldn't have a war on terrorism we should police terrorism. We caught a couple of terrorist a couple weeks back by police and FBI, not by war. Afghanistan and the region has been in civil wars, and religious wars for centuries. Even the Great United States can't change that. Matter of fact, we help give ideological groups more ammo and reason to fight us. These groups can turn people who wouldn't join their fight against the U.S. and therefore join and become terrorist. I applaud Hoh courage to not just quit, but to make public why. Stop spending billions on terrorist (people in the middle of the desert, training on monkey bars, want to be martyrs to get 70 virgins in heaven) and spend a fraction of that on counter terrorism. If Bush did this we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

[FoulBill]

Matthew Who? An American Hero??? Give me a break!! Matthew Who was a low level State Dept political officer based in Afghanistan (you won't find a high level one based there). I'm sure that indepth research would reveal that there have been Senior military officers who have "resigned in disgust over the Administration's wrong headed course in fighting the Afghan war." Now if Hillary Clinton were to "resign in disgust" she would be a newsworthy American Hero.

[freshnotbitter]

nowhere, neither in this post nor in any other, do I find any demand whatsoever for other countries to step up and declare what they want done, how much they are willing to give, and what they want to achieve.

for some reason we have all been fooled into thinking that this is a "unipolar", "one superpower" world, an "American Century", blah, blah, blah blah.........

when is somebody going to wake up and smell the coffee and ask themselves why it is American Marines dying and not Saudi Marines, Brazilian Marines, Chinese Marines.

The reason is that this war was fought from the very beginning in a fishbowl constructed by K St. for the benefit of a few interest groups. It was never approached in a rational, cool-eyed manner. It was always about American "exceptionalism" , Aesop's fox asking the bird to show what a beautiful voice he had so the juicy morsel would fall from the bird's beak and fall to the ground so the fox could eat it up.

If this is a war worth fighting then it is a war worth others countries' blood and teasure. Where is it?

[DuaneW]

Obama should direct Mr Hoh to visit the White House for a private debriefing. Mr. Hoh seems to be filled with his own opinions about the flaws of the current Afghanistan strategies. Rather than pointlessly grumble, he owns the USA his thoughts, experiences and ideas to share with the President. Obama is weighing in the most difficult military conundrum of his administration. An intelligent, analytic man like Hok with more direct experience in the Afghan field than McChrystal should be another contributory voice in helping Obama shape his strategic policy.

Mr. Hoh needs to quit being a complainer and be a part of the solution.

[Joseph48]

Mr. Hoh is not "pointlessly grumbling". He made a clear and cogent argument which was undoubtedly heard by the whitehouse and backed it up to the max.
There is no "difficult military conundrum" here. We need to extricate ourselves from this pointless mess ASAP.
BTW, McChrystol listed leaving as one of his recommended options.

[CapitolHill2012]

Mr. Hoh should be getting a late night call from the Nobel Prize committee.