Posted on 09/05/2008 8:14:49 PM PDT by Coleus
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Under a wine-colored burqa that flows from the crown of her head down over her body, Khadija sat cross-legged, spinning the wheel of a sewing machine and methodically stitching a seam into a flowing stream of white cloth. The 42-year-old mother of five was working to burn off a consuming and deadly habit that again is blooming across Afghanistan. Until a few days ago, Khadija, who like many Afghans uses only one name, slipped opium in her tea twice a day to combat depression.
It was," Khadija said, "more important than food." Just as the Taliban have been reborn in Afghanistan, so have the opium crops. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Afghanistan now produces about 93 percent of the world's opium, yielding an estimated $3 billion a year. The money typically benefits local warlords, corrupt government officials and the Taliban, which once famously banned production of the crop.
The UNODC statistics also indicate the amount of opium cultivated here has increased every year since 2001, when the U.S. military first deposed the Taliban. It's now estimated 1 million of Afghanistan's 32 million people are addicted to narcotics, yet there are only three dozen treatment and rehabilitation facilities throughout the country's 250,000 square miles. Among those seeking help, "the number of addicted women coming to us requesting help is increasing every day," said Rona Threen, who heads the government's Women's Affairs Office in Kandahar. While statistics suggest women remain a sliver of all addicts -- estimated at only about 2 percent -- the center has become an important outlet for women who have no access to psychiatrists, counselors or other drug treatment professionals.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
Bush is an evil man.
Obama Hussein Biden would share this increase with Americas poor.
/s
Sometimes I think atleast half of America is popping pills for the rest/relax factor.
Women and children hardest hit.
Illicit drugs: despite substantial interdiction efforts and considerable control measures along the border with Afghanistan, Iran remains one of the primary transshipment routes for Southwest Asian heroin to Europe; suffers one of the highest opiate addiction rates in the world, and has an increasing problem with synthetic drugs; lacks anti-money laundering laws; has reached out to neighboring countries to share counter-drug intelligence
Iran Iran Iran Iran Iran Iran is the problem.
Not since George Bush invaded.
We should be spraying that crap with herbicide from crop dusters, and dropping little subsistence packets of $20 bills. Then we could go after the middlemen and kill them before they get to the $$$. It would be so much cheaper overall than the global social costs.
Anyone ever read “The politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia” ?
The straight link took me what appears to be on line, is this the one mean?
Big resistance from the Karzai administration on that issue.
What are the odds that his limited support is funded by that demographic?
Could Karzai be funded by opium?
“Big resistance from the Karzai administration on that issue.”
Sad but true. If we were allowed to aggressively use herbicides to eradicate the illicit opium trade, we would succeed. It would defund the Taliban. However, the Karzai administration is too afraid of backlash by the average Joe (or Abdul) that relies on growing opium to feed his family. Because we recognize Afganistan sovereignty, we are stymied.
We apparently bought a lot of cooperation in Thailand during the Vietnam war by ignoring/assisting the opium trade. That is one thing I have never understood. Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we not hold our politicians and power brokers accountable?
We apparently bought a lot of cooperation in Thailand during the Vietnam war by ignoring/assisting the opium trade. That is one thing I have never understood. Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we not hold our politicians and power brokers accountable?
I'm more concerned that the Taliban are using it to fund their terrorism and attack our troops. Milton Friedman had the right idea about how to devalue it.
Dr. Friedman made a perfectly logical suggestion which would most likely work. Which is why of course it was completely ignored by the Government.
L
“Could Karzai be funded by opium?”
In part, yes. The rumor among the locals is that Karzai’s brother is a big drug kingpin.
>“Could Karzai be funded by opium?”
>
>In part, yes. The rumor among the locals is that Karzai’s >brother is a big drug kingpin.
>
Ain’t no rumor. It is his younger brother who is the drug dealer and general criminal. His other specialization is obtaining land and property by intimidation, threats and just throwing people out. Alot of people want this guy dead and Karzai is unwilling and unable to do anything about it. Karzai’s younger brother is not the only one playing this game, which is the basic Afghan business model going back to when the Soviets left, and started up again toward the end of Taliban rule.
If we really wanted to do that we could have done it a long time ago.
“If we really wanted to do that we could have done it a long time ago.”
I work for DoD and I have spoken with too many just returned troops (lower ranks of captain and below). What I have described is the situation as they have observed it on the ground. We are not allowed, by the Afgan government, to do poppy eradication.
As if we needed to be allowed. We could have done it when we took over the country and before we installed that lame a$$ government.
“As if we needed to be allowed. We could have done it when we took over the country and before we installed that lame a$$ government.”
I used to think the same thing. However, all the war vets I have spoken with seem to indicate it would have just made things harder for us to pacify the region and caused more U.S. casulties. The common Abdul makes his living growing poppies for opium. Short of extreme force (which pushes them towards the Taliban, et. al.) how do we convince them to grow food crops instead (which don’t pay well)? It is like trying to convince a U.S. ghetto dweller to get a job at McDonald’s for minimum wage instead of dealing drugs to make more money in a week than a year working for minimum wage.
Additionally, the area is not just the supplier of illicit opium, but opium used by legitimate companies to manufacture medical morphine.
Peronally, I want to play the “bad guy” and eradicate the crops, but I realize (in the short term and possibly long term) it will create ill feelings among the local population that could backfire on our attempts to suppress the Taliban. This is a situation where it is best not to have a heavy handed person like myself at the helm. I wonder how General Petraus would deal with this?
“We should have just gone and used extreme force or the threat of it.”
I am a traditional military type, and I prefer total war. However, the “shock & awe” of total war didn’t work in Iraq. The mideast mindset is just something us westeners can’t understand.
Read the book, “Blackhawk Down.” There are times that too much force against folks that are numb to it will just backfire on you.
Believe me when I say that I don’t like having to accept that “new” realty.
So we support the drug pushers.
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