“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.