US diplomat resigns over Afghan war

This video from the USA is called Rethink Afghanistan (Part 4): Civilian Casualties.

From Al Jazeera:

US diplomat resigns over Afghan war

A US diplomat has resigned from his post in protest over the US-led war in Afghanistan, becoming the first US official to step down over the conflict since it began eight years ago.

Matthew Hoh, the senior state department official in Afghanistan‘s Zabul province, said in a letter released on Tuesday that he had “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,” the letter, which was dated September 10, said.

The Washington Post, a US newspaper, reported that Hoh’s decision “sent ripples all the way to the White House”. …

Government officials had tried to convince Hoh to stay, amid concerns that he could become a prominent voice against the US’s involvement in Afghanistan, the Post reported.

Hoh, a former Marine Corps captain who fought in Iraq, also turned down a senior staff-level job at the US embassy in Kabul after he gave in his resignation. …

The former diplomat said that his resignation, which became final on Wednesday, was tended because staying in his post “was not the right thing to do,” he told the Post.

“… you have to draw the line somewhere, and say this is their problem to solve”

“I’m not some peacenik, pot-smoking hippie who wants everyone to be in love,” he said.

“I want people in Iowa, people in Arkansas, people in Arizona, to call their congressman and say, ‘Listen, I don’t think this is right’.”

Rosiland Jordan, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Washington, said that the content of the letter had won some endorsement.

“There is already support coming from liberal quarters [in the US] for what Matthew Hoh wrote in his resignation letter, which indicated that, in his view, the US has the wrong perception of who the enemy is inside Afghanistan.

“He said that all his efforts inside Afghanistan were being over-run by [what he called] the fact that people in Afghanistan do not like outsiders, regardless of what flag they work under.”

‘Corrupt’ government

Many Afghans fight US forces because of their presence in the country, Hoh said in his letter.

He also criticised Washington’s backing of the Afghan national government that is widely considered to be corrupt.

Afghanistan: The boy is but one youth among many throughout the country forced into an age-old underground tradition known as “bacha bazi,” or “boy play,” in which young boys are taken from their families, made to dance and used as sex slaves by powerful men. The number of boys involved is unknown — the practice has been going on for centuries, in a country where such practices are overshadowed by conflict and war: here.

Malalai Joya: ‘A Woman Among Warlords’: here. And here.