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?