On March 19, 2003, I resigned from the U.S. Department of State. I was the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia, and the third U.S. government employee to resign in opposition to the U.S. war on Iraq.
I resigned on the day the Bush administration began the ten-year U.S. war on Iraq, March 19, 2003.
23 years later, I don’t regret my decision one bit
President Bush, like presidents before and after him, lied. His specific lie was about the reason for the U.S. to attack and kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.
In 2003, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Powell’s lie was about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction despite international weapons inspectors being clear in their statements that, after performing an exhaustive investigation, there were no weapons of mass destruction.
Instead, Bush was following the advisers who wrote the Project for a New American Century guidebook which called for the overthrow of seven countries in the Middle East, and Iraq was the first to be overthrown.
The names of the authors of this war on the world—the “War on Terror”—still live in infamy: Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and, of course, Vice President Dick Cheney.
Bush had already lied about the reason to send U.S. military into Afghanistan. Instead of mounting an international police dragnet for the leaders of al-Qaeda who planned and executed the events of 9/11, the Bush administration wanted to have a platform next to Iran from which to conduct a war on Iran.
But the small, underfunded, poorly trained Taliban kept the U.S. military and the highly trained and poorly motivated Afghan Army on the run for the 20 years that the U.S. was in Afghanistan.
I was a part of the team that reopened the U.S. embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, in December 2001. Our small group of diplomats quickly realized that going after al-Qaida was not the main objective of U.S. intervention in Afghanistan. The focus of U.S. policies and funding in 2002 was elsewhere…and it turned out to be in overthrowing Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
If I had one more resignation…no, two more resignations
One Resignation over Trump’s War in Iran and Biden’s Complicity in the Genocide of Gaza
In the next 23 years there have been numerous times I felt that, if I had still been in the U.S. government, I would have resigned.
Now I would resign over the Trump administration’ illegal invasion of Iran, illegal kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and cruel economic warfare on Cuba, which is resulting in the attempted starvation of the population.
President Trump and President Joe Biden’s complicity in the Israeli genocide of Gaza, which began in October 2023 deserved resignation. At least 14 U.S. government employees resigned over the weapons and encouragement the Biden administration gave to the Israeli government in the genocide of Gaza with more than 100,000 Palestinians killed and tens of thousands still under the rubble by the time Biden left office, with no attempt at getting the Israeli government to stop the killings.
And, let’s not forget the Obama-Biden administration’s complicity in the U.S.-orchestrated events in Ukraine that included the 2014 right-wing, nationalist overthrow of the government and broken promises to Russia that Ukraine would not become a part of NATO. These policies led to the terrible war between Ukraine and Russia and the fueling of that war by the Biden administration with weapons and a total lack of any attempt to bring an end to the dangerous conflict.
Another resignation over Trump’s Actions Domestically and Internationally—Project 2025
And now, another resignation would be coming from me if I were still in the U.S. government.
Four presidential administrations after I resigned—Obama, Trump, Biden, Trump—another roadmap for domestic and international lawbreaking and chaos is guiding a president: Project 2025.
While Trump, like Bush before him, disavowed knowledge of any plan cooked up by advisers, Trump is playing into the hands of those with an agenda that will haunt him, an agenda much more wide-ranging than the one Bush allowed to happen.
The rails are off for the destruction of the U.S. government with massive firings of civil servants.
Reasonable government reform and downsizing has become government destruction led by unelected Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, who has some of the largest government contracts (many of which have been under investigation).
Musk leads a team of very young technology mavericks who have no knowledge of the government and are taking over the computer information of the entire U.S. government, firing tens of thousands of employees with a keystroke.
Trump is emboldened by the lack of congressional outrage and now is threatening to invade Panama and Greenland and is bullying Canada about becoming a state of the United States, to which the Canadian public and officials have rightly responded with a hockey warning to Trump: “Elbows up!”
Shamefully, the “peace” candidate—Trump—humiliated and bullied Ukrainian President Zelensky in the White house in a meeting over the sale of Ukrainian minerals to pay the U.S. for its weapons in its war with Russia.
Besides invading Iran, “peace candidate” Trump also extended the cruel blockade of Gaza and Israeli warfare and established a “Board of Peace” that is a relic from the age of colonialism that will strip Gazans of their sovereignty.
As the cease-fire came into effect, Trump, true to his style, told the world that Palestinians need to leave Gaza so it can be built back into something “wonderful”…but without them.
And, don’t get me started on the kowtowing by government agencies, universities and corporations to Trump on the elimination of DEI—Diversity, Equity and Inclusion—as his henchmen erase women, minorities, disabled and gender in his white, male, nationalist agenda seemingly spearheaded by the very unqualified (on every level) Secretary of Offensive Pete Hegseth.
So many issues…and opportunities for resignation and resistance.
From Resignation to Resistance
I resigned two decades ago from criminal U.S. policies and now I am in my 23rd year of resistance to criminal policies of successive administrations.
Working with many organizations on the local (Hawai’i Peace & Justice, The World Can’t Wait, Students and Faculty for Palestine, Hawaii for Palestine: Under the Olive Tree), national (CODEPINK: Women for Peace, Veterans For Peace, Shut Down Drone Warfare) and international levels (International Peace Bureau, NO to NATO, No to War, World Beyond War, Women Cross DMZ, Pacific Peace Network, Ban Killer Drones) has given me outlets for protest and, importantly, being with others who are deeply concerned about U.S. administration actions here in our own country and around the world.
You Must Resist
If you are not yet resisting, please join the millions who are on the streets, in Congress, at town hall meetings, writing emails and calling to end the assault on our country and the world. I have put links to many of the organizations with which I work.
Please join us!!!
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About the Author
Ann Wright is a retired United States Army colonel and retired U.S. State Department official.
She was one of three State Department officials to publicly resign in direct protest of the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.
Since that time Colonel Wright has been a dedicated peace activist.
Ann can be reached at annw1946@gmail.com.
