Rachel Ray’s Magnificent Ass
The Media Loves a Man With a Messiah Complex
Friday, October 30, 2009 As I have said, there's no doubt that Matthew Hoh is a good man. He represents himself well and he is sincere in what he's saying. I don't question his motives; I question whether he's qualified to say what he's saying (certainly, I am not; don't expect me to make that argument). I am commenting on what I see. They call that blogging.
So, there's no doubt that he is brave and has served his country honorably.That being said, his messiah complex about the Afghan War is troubling.
The Foreign Service Officer who resigned last month in protest over America's war in Afghanistan said Friday he has received an outpouring of support from Afghan-Americans and U.S. active-duty military.
"I've had a lot of Afghan-Americans contact me and say, 'Matt, you get it,' " Matthew Hoh told CNN. "You understand -- yes, there is a civil war going on. You understand how Afghan society works. You understand this split within the Pashtuns. You understand valley-ism, or whatever you want to call it."
The 36-year-old former Marine Corps captain resigned on September 10 over what he termed a "cavalier, politically expedient and Pollyannaish misadventure." Since then, even active-duty military have supported his decision, he said on CNN[...]
"I have received many many e-mails from active-duty military and some guys who just separated from the service," Hoh said. "Some guys are here in the States. I've gotten many e-mails from guys in Afghanistan. Some are people I know. But a lot are people I do not know. Men and women who are saying, 'Thanks for doing this. Keep it up. We don't know why we're here. We're not sure why we're taking these casualties. We don't know what it's accomplishing.'"
In his letter, the senior civilian representative in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, said he was resigning because "I fail to see the value or worth in continued U.S. casualties or expenditures of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year-old civil war." He concluded the letter by saying that he had "lost confidence" that the "dead have sacrificed for a purpose worthy of futures lost, love vanished and promised dreams unkept."
First of all, Hoh is not a Foreign Service Officer. He is:
Matt is a ‘3161′ State Department employee, a special category of temporary appointments brought on for 12 month assignments in certain areas of expertise– engineering, ag, business, rule of law, etc. Some may sign on for a second 12-month tour.
This is a very different thing than being an FSO– a commissioned, career diplomat who is a generalist and is appointed not as a result of an online job application and single interview (sometimes over the phone), but after a series of competitive oral, written, and physical exams.
Referring to Matt as a “U.S. Official” is about as accurate as referring to a postal employee as a U.S. official.
Second of all, he's speaking well above his paygrade. His opinions certainly matter--he has been on the ground and no doubt knows of which he speaks when he speaks to what he has seen and experienced. He is too young and inexperienced to make a genuinely profound statement as to the strategic aspects of what we are doing. I certainly want to hear what he thinks about where he has been. I want to hear others speak to that as well. If they say "we're losing the entire war, and here's why," I think that what they have to say should be heard, but with the caveat being, "bear in mind, I am not at the strategic level and this is just my opinion."
Third, I want to hear someone at the strategic level echo his remarks or repudiate them. To let him go unanswered is a disgrace.
Fourth, who has really been critical of the flowery statements and the grand pronouncements he has made so far? When was the last time anyone mentioned his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or his admitted alcoholism?
It wasn't until his third month home, in an apartment in Arlington, that it hit him like a wave. "All the things you hear about how it comes over you, it really did. . . . You have dreams, you can't sleep. You're just, 'Why did I fail? Why didn't I save that man? Why are his kids growing up without a father?' "
Like many Marines in similar situations, he didn't seek help. "The only thing I did," Hoh said, "was drink myself blind."
What finally began to bring him back, he said, was a television show -- "Rescue Me" on the FX cable network -- about a fictional New York firefighter who descended into "survivor guilt" and alcoholism after losing his best friend in the World Trade Center attacks.
Fifth, If you are truly of the mind that the Afghan war is a mistake, you're probably hearing him echo your sentiments (I believe the war is a mistake but he DOES NOT echo mine). Much of what is going on in our current discourse is based on a visceral reaction to Obama vs Bush in style and substance. Discount that. Pretend we're talking James Polk vs Jerry Ford if that gets that out of your mind. Judging these things should not be about your like or dislike of who is the President. On the flip side, if you support the COIN (Counterinsurgency) efforts, you are probably in agreement with much of what he says as well. If you are a staunch supporter of the Obama/Biden need to put the war on hold and think on it for a bit, you are probably miffed that this young man has stolen the thunder and pushed the accelerator. His letter is a bit of a rant--how he gets to invading Somalia and a need "to reevaluate and increase our commitment to and involvement in Mexico" in the context of a resignation letter from his job in Afghanistan deserves a little consideration. [pdf alert]
I see a man with a messiah complex. Sorry, but I do. Tell me why you think we're on the wrong path. Tell me what you've seen that makes that your final answer. I don't need the flowery pronouncements about promises unkept. I want to know where we are screwing up. That's what the military and civilian leadership must answer.
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Reader Comments (2)
My estimation of the situation in Afghanistan and the one in Iraq as well is very simple. The involvement of the USA in either of those places is a huge mistake. The reasons are legion.
First, there is the point that all of this is taking place under a cloud of questionable legality. The United Nations refused to sanction any US invasion of Iraq. And, if I remember clearly, the leaders of Nazi Germany were prosecuted, after WW2,
for, among other things, the waging of aggressive war. If our actions in these these 2 places do not constitute aggressive war, I would love to know what does.
Second, there never was any threat to the USA from either place. If one trots out the argument that Afghanistan harbored Bin Laden who masterminded the 9/11 tragedy, what conceivable relevance does that have? The city of Chicago was not destroyed to get rid of Al Capone. Why should Afghanistan be destroyed because some of its residents have unsavory ideas about how to interact with the USA? What should have been done is that well trained cops and or special forces troops should have been dispatched to the area to catch Bin Laden and his fellow zanies.
One may or may not agree with my idea about what should have been done, but, how could it have yielded worse results than what did happen?
Third, this is a logistical nightmare. Afghanistan and Iraq are both at the ends of immensely long supply lines which run through hostile territory. A gallon of gasoline delivered to troopers on the front line in Afghanistan costs the USA $400.
We have to pay for local transport of goods in both places. In both places, a good deal of the money is going to anti-
US forces. They use the money as they please. Most likely this is not in support of the aims of the USA.
Fourth, is the real kicker in the bunch. I do not understand why there has not been a lot of talk and or analysis on this point, that all of this military hoo-hah was designed with just one point in mind: the rehabilitation of the reputation of and the enhancement of the chances for reelection of the shrub. This was truly a gift from the gods for a group of politicians as powerhungry and as cynical as those in the shrub White House. 9/11 gave them the chance to start a war and to strike all kinds of patriotic poses and to exploit the fact that the public in the USA would almost certainly never dump a president in the middle of a war.
Fifth is the problem of operating in a place where our troops and their commanders do not have any real understanding of, or appreciation for, the indigenous culture, language and mores. In many cases, in Iraq at any rate, US soldiers or marines have driven over or into bombs and or mines. These have been harmless to the natives because they have been clearly labeled as bombs, In Arabic. In Afghanistan, there have been news stories involving Afghan troops turning on their supposed allies, the US troops, and blowing the US troops away. Clearly, the USA is not succeeding terribly well at winning hearts and minds.
So, here we are, thirty odd years on, repeating many of the mistakes of Vietnam. We are engaged in military action that has no strategic or geopolitical justification. We are following in the footprints of many before us who have tried to subdue these areas, and failed. For some reason, we think we can do it. We are conducting our military operations at the ends of very long, very expensive, supply lines. Our soldiers are coming home from these places shattered and with no prospect of decent medical or psychiatric care. And some idiots claim Iraq is not Vietnam!
Anyway, there is my estimation of what's what in Iraq and Afghanistan.
That's it's own blog post. Do you have a blog? If so, get that up.
Many of the bombs killing our troops kill a good number of the people around them--our enemies are bloodthirsty killers who believe body counts further their own cause.
The legality of the war is beyond the pale. It was voted upon by our Congress, and it has been funded by our Congress, which claims to provide oversight and compliance.