U.S. Official Resigns in Protest of Afghan Strategy

Foreign Service Officer Matthew Hoh, a former Marine officer in Iraq, has resigned in protest over our planned escalation in Afghanistan. His background is impressive and his reasons are troubling.

But many Afghans, he wrote in his resignation letter, are fighting the United States largely because its troops are there -- a growing military presence in villages and valleys where outsiders, including other Afghans, are not welcome and where the corrupt, U.S.-backed national government is rejected. While the Taliban is a malign presence, and Pakistan-based al-Qaeda needs to be confronted, he said, the United States is asking its troops to die in Afghanistan for what is essentially a far-off civil war.

Hat tip to Polipundit.com