First Official Resigns Over War in Afghanistan

Matthew Hoh, a former U.S. Marine who was serving as a Foreign Service Officer in Zabul, Afghanistan, has resigned.

“To put simply, I fail to see the value or the worth in the continued U.S. casualties or expenditures of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year-old civil war,” wrote Hoh in his resignation letter.

I do see the value and the worth of continued U.S. casualties and resources because the alternative is very, very nasty. However, I fail to see the value or the worth in the continued presence of the Obama administration. We will never turn Afghanistan into a Jeffersonian democracy, but our military sure as hell can turn the Taliban and al Qaeda terrorists into dead tangoes. That’s all that’s missing, and it could be provided by an administration that had a freaking clue. Not to say the Bush administration was ideal, but they did send the Taliban running for their caves with their tails between their legs in October, 2001.

Hoh spent six years in Iraq, seeing combat as a Captain in the U.S. Marine Corps and as a civilian for the Defense Department.

Hoh told the Washington Post:

“I’m not some peacenik, pot-smoking hippie who wants everyone to be in love,” Hoh said. Although he said his time in Zabul was the “second-best job I’ve ever had,” his dominant experience is from the Marines, where many of his closest friends still serve.

“There are plenty of dudes who need to be killed,” he said of al Qaeda and the Taliban. “I was never more happy than when our Iraq team whacked a bunch of guys.”

Remember when war meant killing the bad guys? Marines are good at that. It’s what makes them happy, and what makes the enemy second-guess the whole going to war with the infidel thing.

Now Obama is seeking to cut deals with the bad guys. Well if that worked, why didn’t we just pay off the Nazis and the Soviets? And let’s not forget that the Taliban aren’t innocent bystanders in the Long War. Basically the entire “Who’s Who in Islamic Terrorism” went through some Taliban terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.

An ABC News/Washington Post poll released last week showed that 31 percent of Americans believe Obama has a clear plan for dealing with the situation in Afghanistan, while 63 percent think he does not.

31 percent? Would those 31 percent care to share what the hell Obama’s “clear plan” is?

The morale is s**t. The nation does not have the resolve to win the war. The administration is doing nothing. How long will Americans put up with this? How many more troops have to die in vain before Washington pulls its collective head out of its a**?

I say keep the troops, pull out the politicians.