"I'm very impressed by what Matthew Hoh has just done. Here's a former marine captain -- my own roots are as a marine -- who has resigned and refused high posts with Amb. Holbrooke in order to tell the truth. This is the highest form of patriotism. I'd like to see him sitting down with President Obama to tell him what the war looks like from the Taliban-controlled provinces he just came from and brief the Joint Chiefs of Staff -- he knows a lot more about the situation than any of them.
"I see the situation as Vietnamistan: If you put more troops in this year, the Taliban will be stronger next year. We recruit as we kill and support a corrupt, dope-dealing government. There's no way of making this government look like it really cares about the Afghan people. No foreign troops have ever carried out a successful counter-insurgency campaign in terms of actually winning over the population." [Via IPA]
- Ellsberg's film, 'The Most Dangerous Man in America,' is currently in theaters.
- On Matthew Hoh, the "first U.S. official known to resign in protest over the Afghan war," see here, here, here.