Heave-Hoh: Don't Let The Door Hit You On The Way Out . . .

Perhaps you have read that Foreign Service Officer Matthew Hoh, assigned to Afghanistan, has resigned in protest over the continued U.S. presence there.

But Hoh didn't just quit. Instead, he made a concerted effort to embarrass the President and call attention to himself, by writing a four-page letter to the State Department's personnel chief, which was then leaked to the press. As reported by the Washington Post, the letter said, among other things:

"I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan," [Hoh] wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter to the department's head of personnel. "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 full letter is here:

Hoh Resignation Letter

Sorry, Mr. Hoh, I'm not buying what you're selling. Perhaps we can target our resources in Afghanistan, as suggested by Vice President Biden, more directly at Al-Queda forces there.

But we can't just leave Afghanistan. The prior vacuum in that country allowed al-Queda to organize bases that served as the launchpad for attacks on the United States. It is simply unthinkable to allow that to happen again.

Yes, it's been a long campaign. But that, in part, was due to the Iraq diversion. And BECAUSE we've been there a long time is exactly WHY we need to be sure the forces of al-Queda are stamped out before we leave.

So give our Foreign Service Officer the old Heave-Hoh out the door. No gold watch for him.