Despite the potential loss of a career, numerous diplomats at the United States State Department and over a hundred congressional staffers have spoken out against President Joe Biden and his administration’s unwavering support for the Israeli military’s assault on Gaza.
Two whistleblowers and Eisenhower Media Network fellows, Colonel Ann Wright and Captain Matthew Hoh, previously resigned from positions at the State Department and offer support to Josh Paul and any other government workers pushing back.
Ann Wright resigned days before the U.S. military invaded Iraq in March 2003. Recently, Wright traveled to Istanbul for the “Freedom Convoy for Palestine.” “The people of conscience in our government, Josh Paul and those who signed the dissent letter for challenging the Biden administration’s dangerous Israel policies, are true patriots for challenging policies they know will have terrible consequences for the United States.”
Matthew Hoh, who resigned in protest against the U.S. war in Afghanistan in 2009, also praised Paul. He acknowledged that a lot of people resign when they reach the “culmination of many, many years” of trying to “ameliorate outcomes” so that something bad does not become worse “In a lot of our cases, you just reach the point where you can no longer lie to yourself. You can no longer make excuses. You can no longer rationalize.”
Read the full piece from The Dissenter here.
I know the challenges of making up one’s mind to resign on principle—giving up one’s job and coming in for criticism from colleagues, supervisors, friends, family and the media. While all of that happened, I am so glad I resigned 20 years ago as an overwhelming number of people have told me that my resignation gave them hope that not everyone in the U.S. government agreed with [President George W. Bush’s] policies.
Col. Ann Wright