The situation in Afghanistan is continuing to deteriorate across the board while President Obama weighs how to best approach the problem. The United Nations (UN) has decided to pull out about 600 members of its administrative staff in Afghanistan in an attempt to better ensure their safety. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack that killed five UN staffers recently and the UN cited specific security concerns when announcing the staff move.
Kai Eide, the head of the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, says they have started the process of moving at least 600 international staff members to more secure locations. “We are not talking about pulling out, and we are not talking about [an] evacuation,” he said. “We are simply doing what we have to do, following the tragic event of last week, to look after our workers in a difficult moment while ensuring that our operations in Afghanistan can continue.”
This announcement comes on the heels of the damaging resignation letter of Matthew Hoh, a top U.S. official on the ground in Afghanistan. Hoh’s letter explained what he perceived to be an unwinnable engagement with factions that were already engaged in a civil war for over three decades. Corruption had poisoned the Afghan election process and Hoh argued that the coalition presence only offered opportunities for individual groups to profit and advance their agendas when necessary.
