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Posted on 06/05/2007 5:05:09 PM PDT by SandRat
WASHINGTON, June 5, 2007 – The problems plaguing the Afghan government cannot be taken on without taking on the problem of poppy production, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan told Pentagon reporters in a teleconference today. Although he’s not suggesting changing the charter of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, Army Gen. Dan K. McNeill said coalition forces can likely work within the eight pillars of the Afghan National Strategy for Counternarcotics to help fight against the opium cultivation in the country.
“Poppy is a defining characteristic for this country at present,” McNeill said. “And it’s a negative definition any way you look at it.”
In years past, Afghans have had to turn to growing opium poppy largely due infrastructure problems such as poor roads and destroyed irrigation systems. Since poppies need moisture once every five days, the plant was heavily relied upon to provide an income for farmers in the drought-stricken country.
With increased moisture from the snow melt in the Hindu Kush Mountains this year and the best spring rain the country has received in more than 50 year, the general said prime conditions have been set for optimum narcotic cultivation.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt that there is some connection between the insurgency and poppy,” McNeill said. He said that while monitoring of convoys for insurgents and munitions, coalition troops have frequently come across narcotics convoys.
“It occurs to me that when I put all this together, that is some places in Afghanistan, probably especially in the south, they’re almost inextricable – what the insurgents are doing and what the ‘narco’ dealers are doing,” he said.
The general said that he didn’t have any numerical evidence to assign to the relationship, but he is convinced of the relationship. And the NATO force, he said, isn’t designed to challenge the poppy trade militarily.
“(Coalition troops) are not an eradication force,” he said. “We’re not trained, we’re not equipped, we don’t have the requisite number of helicopters, and we’re not manned to do it.”
However, McNeill said that NATO forces will be able to work within the country’s counternarcotics pillars to operate against the problem.
“I don’t believe that we can deal with the insurgency in a complete fashion without taking on the issue of poppy,” McNeill said.
FR WAR NEWS!I, too, have posted about this.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1824792/posts
There is something so wrong about the fabulous increase this year in the poppy output in Afganistan — benefitting Al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Can't papaver grow in this hemisphere? Oh, I forgot -- they're not a favored species.
The Cannabis Patrol - Afghanistan
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=147_1180611993
Weed Fields of Afghanistan - (naughty music accompanys' video clip)
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5db_1179037389
Drugs are a big part of Afghanistan. Always have been, always will be.
It was long before the Taliban existed, long before the British or Russians ever thought about the place. A long, long time. We aren't going to change that. Since at least the time of Alexander the Great. Although until the 1970s it is said to have been mostly for "medicinal" purposes. I'll bet!
I figure if it will grow in Afghanistan it will about anywhere. Maybe not Djibouti, or in the polar regions, but pretty much anywhere else. I"m sure it would grown in the desert southwest, which has similar climate, although higher atmospheric pressure, being much lower in elevation. Places in Peru and Chile have similar warm dry climate.. and they up pretty high too.
According to this USDA site, it grows in many US states, although often in only a few counties in any particular state.
What WAR ON DRUGS ???~~~Got AGENT ORANGE ???
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