Matthew Hoh is an American hero we can all be proud of. He spent almost twelve years in the United States military and did work overseas during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. His experience has given him a unique opportunity to understand what is going on in war and some of the far-reaching effects that it can cause on the veterans who serve and on the American people as well.
Since his time in the military, Hoh has spent a lot of time wearing many hats. He works to help support veterans who may be struggling after war, works hard to speak the truth when many others in the military may want to hide it, and famously resigned from the State Department as a protest to the idea of escalating the war in Afghanistan.
His Time Abroad
Matthew Hoh is best known for some of the time he served in the military abroad in Afghanistan and Iraq. Since 2010, he worked as a Senior Fellow with the Center for International Policy, putting him right in the middle of the action and some of the major decision-making that was needed during that time. But he has not always been received warmly by the military for some of the opinions he has had during his time there.
For example, Hoh was not a fan of the State Department in 2009 when they were looking to escalate the war in Afghanistan, actually choosing to resign from his post there because of the problem. Prior to this, Hoh had spent some time in Iraq during the American occupation, both in 2004 to 2005 and in 2006 to 2007, which meant that he had some firsthand experience to see what was going on in the area.
With this unique knowledge at his disposal, he was able to work, when not deployed, with the State Department and the Pentagon to help figure out the best policies for the war and to smooth out some of the operations issues that were going on during that time.