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First US official resigns to protest Afghan war

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-10-27 23:08

File photo shows an Afghan farmer watching as US marines pass by in Garmsir district of Helmand Province in Afghanistan. [Agencies]

WASHINGTON: A former Marine who fought in Iraq, joined the State Department after leaving the military and was a diplomat in a Taliban stronghold in Afghanistan has become the first US official to resign in protest of the Afghan war, the Washington Post reported early Tuesday.

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Matthew Hoh said he believes the war is simply fueling the insurgency.

"I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan," Hoh wrote in his resignation letter, dated Sept. 10 but published early Tuesday.

"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."

Richard Holbrooke, the administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, told the Post he disagreed that the war "wasn't worth the fight," but did agree with much of Hoh's analysis.