Washington: A diplomat disillusioned with US
involvement in Afghanistan has become the first US official
known to have resigned in protest over the eight-year war, The
Washington Post said on Tuesday.
Matthew Hoh, 36, was the senior State Department official
in Afghanistan's Zabul province, a hotbed for Taliban
militants, until he resigned last month.
His background in both civil and military fields may have
seemed the perfect fit for President Barack Obama's
administration as it steps up its counterinsurgency efforts in
the war-torn country.
But in a September 10 letter to the State Department's
personnel chief, Hoh wrote: "I have lost understanding of and
confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States'
presence in Afghanistan.
"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," added the former Marine Corps captain, according
to comments carried by the Post.
The resignation, the newspaper said, "sent ripples all
the way to the White House," and government officials
scrambled to convince Hoh to stay, concerned that he could
become a prominent critic of the fledgling administration's
Afghanistan policy.
Bureau Report
First Published: Tuesday, October 27, 2009, 18:04