"It's Time For Us To Go"

Chris Buckley:

If you have not seen Karen DeYoung’s Oct 27 story, “U.S. Official Resigns Over Afghan War”, you owe it to yourself, your country, and our soldiers over there to read it. But even more powerful than Ms. DeYoung’s stunner of a scoop is the accompanying letter of resignation itself of Matthew P. Hoh, the 36-year old Marine-turned-Foreign Service Officer. It is a cry of conscience and an indictment of our continued presence in Afghanistan.

One can only pray—I use the word literally—that President Obama will read it before he makes his fateful decision about where we go from here in Afghanistan.

[..] Reading Mr. Hoh’s anguished, principled and urgent letter put me in mind of two great Americans of the Vietnam era: John Paul Vann and Frank Snepp. Vann, a soldier turned foreign service officer was the indispensable man of Acts 1 and 2 of our Vietnam tragedy. Frank Snepp, the CIA officer who spoke out against our shameless betrayal of our friends when Saigon fell, and who was unjustly punished for that act of conscience, was the hero of Act 3. With his letter, Matthew Hoh becomes the indispensable man of what one prays will be the final act of our adventure in the land that defeated Alexander the Great, Great Britain, and Russia.

If after reading Ms. DeYoung’s account and Mr. Hoh’s letter, you draw these same conclusions, do more than post a comment here. Do the old fashioned thing: call your congressman and senator. Tell them, "It’s time for us to go."