Those crazy Afghanis! Just when you thought they couldn't do better, they come right back and make a fool out of you. Sheesh.
The Associated Press reports that the American general currently commanding NATO forces in that country is expecting another year of "explosive growth" in Afghanistan's opium production.
2006 was an all-time record. That record fell when the 2007 crop jumped 37%.
General Dan McNeil, said NATO's leaders in Brussels have made clear that he is to use the current ISAF mandate to its fullest extent "to help the people of Afghanistan rid themselves of this scourge, and that will be our intent." I'm not sure just how much help the poppy growers are looking for.
"When Afghan and NATO forces last month recaptured the town of Musa Qala in Helmand province, the world's largest poppy growing region they discovered dozens of heroin labs and stockpiles of drugs worth $500 million in street value, according to U.S. Ambassador William Wood.
McNeill estimated that insurgents get 20 per cent to 40 per cent of their income from drugs, but he said some UN officials have told him the number could be as high as 60 per cent. "
The Associated Press reports that the American general currently commanding NATO forces in that country is expecting another year of "explosive growth" in Afghanistan's opium production.
2006 was an all-time record. That record fell when the 2007 crop jumped 37%.
General Dan McNeil, said NATO's leaders in Brussels have made clear that he is to use the current ISAF mandate to its fullest extent "to help the people of Afghanistan rid themselves of this scourge, and that will be our intent." I'm not sure just how much help the poppy growers are looking for.
"When Afghan and NATO forces last month recaptured the town of Musa Qala in Helmand province, the world's largest poppy growing region they discovered dozens of heroin labs and stockpiles of drugs worth $500 million in street value, according to U.S. Ambassador William Wood.
McNeill estimated that insurgents get 20 per cent to 40 per cent of their income from drugs, but he said some UN officials have told him the number could be as high as 60 per cent. "
So what do you suggest to rectify the problem?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure there is an easy answer, Grump. The easiest part of the problem is the financial side. Opium brings just $4-billion into Afghanistan - about what George w. Bush spends in Iraq in 10-days. Helping growers go legit, either by selling their opium for medicinal purposes or subsidizing the growing of food crops, isn't financially impossible.
ReplyDeleteWhat is more difficult is the criminal side to the opium industry and that reaches right into the Karzai government. This joker hasn't arrested a single drug lord in the nearly six years he's been in power - not one. His own brother, Ahmed Karzai, is widely reputed to be a drug lord in deep with one or more warlords.
We'd have to shake the opium trade and every other criminal enterprise out of the central goverment to make a difference but that would mean treating the very outfit we're supposedly supporting into our enemy.
I don't use this word very often but I will this time - Afghanistan is a fucking mess, hopelessly screwed up by the indifference and neglect of Washington.
Canada can't make Washington act responsibly and Washington won't make Karzai clean up his own house. If we can't get over those hurdles how can we hope to tackle the drug problem or the insurgency? We can't. I think we're doing the right thing - give Washington and Brussels our notice and get out.
My sense is that Washington (under a new Democrat President) will pull out of the entire mess ala "let's get the hell outta Saigon" circa 1975, rather than commit to cleaning up the shit storm they created.
ReplyDeleteYou might be right but it won't be as simple as the withdrawal from Saigon. The US military was almost entirely gone from Vietnam well before the end and its departure left no genuine American strategic interests in jeopardy. The north unified the country and was there to step in when the Khmer Rouge tore apart neighbouring Cambodia. That meant the fallout for the US was pretty negligible, save for the psychological impacts at home. Both Iraq and Afghanistan are in awfully bad shape right now. Both, I suspect, will eventually fall to some sort of strongman rule although it may take civil wars to get there. Iran is alread being set up by American stupidity and Russian and Chinese opportunism to become the Middle East regional power, Shia at that.
ReplyDeleteWhat a miserable mess these chickenhawks have made of this entire region.
Solution:
ReplyDeleteLegalize heroin and other opiates. Take the profit out of the drug trade and let cultivation occur in friendlier places (like the Okanogan). If the world price of heroin drops because of an increase in over all supply, many in Afghanistan will simply grow something else. Its why they grow opium poppies in the first place - they can make money.
Mike, I'm finding it harder to argue against your solution. Interesting report today out of the UK. The Chief Constable of North Wales says Ecstasy should be decriminalized, claiming it's about as harmful as aspirin. So many conflicting opinions but no one can argue that prohibition is the best thing that ever happened for the criminal element.
ReplyDelete