As US President Barack Obama ponders his options in what has become widely known as “Obama’s War” in Afghanistan, the resignation of a mid-level civilian official in Kabul has complicated the president’s choices, while a recent poll of Afghans lends a glimmer of optimism.
Matthew Hoh, a 36-year-old former Marine who headed a small provincial reconstruction team, has resigned because “I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’ presence in Afghanistan.”
In his letter of resignation to Nancy Powell, the Director-General of the Foreign Service, Hoh wrote that “I fail to see the value or the worth in continued US casualties or expenditures of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year old civil war.”
He noted that next fall, the “United States’ occupation” will equal that of the Soviet Union’s failed effort that began in 1979.
“Like the Soviets,” Hoh said, “we continue to secure and bolster a failing state, while encouraging an ideology and system of government unknown and unwanted by its people.”
Ordinarily, the resignation of a middle ranking official doesn’t cause much of a stir. In this case, however, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, head of the US mission in Kabul, and Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the Obama administration’s special envoy on Pakistan and Afghanistan, both sought to dissuade Hoh from leaving. He was to see US Vice President Joseph Biden’s foreign policy adviser, Antony Blinken, this weekend.
Moreover, Hoh’s letter was leaked to the press, by whom and for what purpose is not clear. Hoh dated his letter Sept. 11, the eighth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington in 2001, but it didn’t show up in public until the Washington Post printed a front page story last Tuesday. That was quickly followed by articles in other papers, reports on TV news, an interview on the PBS News Hour, and numerous Internet blogs. Hoh’s questioning of the US military presence in Afghanistan came as US deaths there mounted to a monthly record of 55 as the end of last month approached. The US has deployed 68,000 men and women of all services in Afghanistan.
The former Marine, who fought in Iraq, ticked off a litany of ills he alleged in Afghanistan, including “glaring corruption and unabashed graft,” a president affiliated with drug lords and criminals, provincial leaders who are power brokers and opportunists, and the recent elections “dominated by fraud and discredited by low voter turnout.”
Hoh said: “The dead return only in bodily form to be received by families who must be reassured their dead have sacrificed for a purpose worthy of futures lost, love vanished and promised dreams unkept. I have lost confidence such assurances can anymore be made.”
In some contrast to Hoh’s gloomy outlook, the results of a recent poll of Afghans released this week by the Asia Foundation, the non-governmental organization promoting development in Asia, produced a flicker of light. The survey found that 42 percent feel the country is moving in the right direction, up from 38 percent last year, but well below the 64 percent five years ago.
The reason for optimism was improved security, noted by 44 percent compared with 31 percent in 2006. Respondents also mentioned rebuilding and opening of schools for girls. The lack of security, however, generated pessimism even though that was cited by 42 percent, down from 50 percent last year.
Of the respondents, 51 percent said “they fear for their personal safety.” Of them, 17 percent said “they or someone in their family have been victims of violence or crime in the past year.” Nearly one in 10 victims said this was because of militias, insurgents or foreign forces.
Which was not unlike Hoh’s point.
Richard Halloran is a freelance writer in Hawaii.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of
RSS