Posted on 04/10/2013 6:30:03 PM PDT by Pan_Yan
Afghanistan produces 90% of all opiate drugs in the world, but until recently was not a major consumer. Now, out of a population of 35 million, more than a million are addicted to drugs - proportionately the highest figure in the world.
Right in the heart of Kabul, on the stony banks of the Kabul River, drug addicts gather to buy and use heroin. It's a place of misery and degradation.
In broad daylight about a dozen men and teenage boys sit huddled in pairs smoking and injecting. Among them are some educated people - a doctor, an engineer and an interpreter.
Tariq Sulaiman, from Najat, a local addiction charity, comes here regularly to try to persuade addicts to get treatment.
"We are already losing our children to suicide attacks, rocket and bomb attacks," he says. "But now addiction is another sort of terrorism which is killing our countrymen."
...
The reasons why so many Afghans are turning to drugs are complex. It's clear that decades of violence have played a part.
Many of those who fled during the violence of the last 30 years took refuge in Iran and Pakistan, where addiction rates have long been high. They're now returning and bringing their drug problems with them, officials say.
Unemployment - which currently stands at nearly 40% - is also taking its toll.
"If I had a job, I wouldn't be here," says Farooq, one of the addicts by the river, who has a degree in medicine and once worked as a hospital manager.
He says he takes drugs "to be calm and to relax" - but that he would prefer to be dead than a junkie, as he now is.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
I get it.
Iran also has a huge heroin problem.
The United States (and its in-country allies) are the ONLY HOPE for the people of Afghanistan to get out of the drug addiction, medieval mentality, and suppression of human rights than both traditional Islamic society and the Nazi-like Taliban represent and impose.
Womens’ rights and childrens rights to go to school have made tremendous advances (at a great cost in human life and limb) with America’s help (both military, official help and charitable efforts back home). We cannot abandon these people who have put their trust in us. We CANNOT ALLOW ANOTHER BETRAYAL AS WE DID TO THE PEOPLE OF LAOS, CAMBODIA AND SOUTH VIETNAM WITH THE RESULTANT MILLIONS OF DEATHS, TORTURE, AND THE DESTRUCTION OF A CIVILIZATION (IN CAMBODIA).
We need to let our remaining troops WIN by almost any means handy. Right now the Taliban is laughing at us and Obama. They are among the most cruel people in the world and they are winning because we are letting them win.
That is a “high crime and misdemeanor” charge against Obama.
We must speak out against this cowardice, NOW!
The article mentions Iran and Pakistan having big drug problems. Maybe an heroin addiction is easier to hide than being drunk? Easier to make? There was an article a few weeks ago about 50 people dying from bad booze in Libya so obviously those countries aren’t as dry as they pretend to be.
They have 40% unemployment because the place is like f**king Bedrock. Been there, its like being on another planet.
I received a link on Facebook a while back about what the place was like in the 70’s-80’s. Women going to school, no burka’s, no beards. Place looked like any other place in the world.
Too bad people don’t realize and understand these Taliban types are all about power and control and use their religion to hide their real agenda.
A while back I found an old pile of National Geographic Magazines for a quarter each in a thrift store. I've got the September 1968 edition sitting on my desk with a long article about Afghanistan. It is totally disconnected from what we've seen in the last decade plus. The coolest picture is of an old tribesman holding his prize possession, an 1802 British flintlock from the Venerable East India Company. The author traded him a new shotgun for it. That gun must still be hanging over a fireplace somewhere in England.
I’ve been to a few muslim countries. Some, like the UAE and Jordan, are more secular, allow things like alcohol and women to be part of society. In fact, there are some absolute knockouts in the Middle East. Just watch some Middle Eastern soap operas and you’d be amazed. Go to the richest areas of Europe and the US and watch as Saudi princes party the night away with bottle of Cristal.
Anywho, there is so much hypocrisy in the ME and muslim world, that it would amaze people.
I think that’s where the FB link came from.
Yes, I’ve heard of the two faced nature of many Islamic societies. What’s sad about Afghanistan is that the country has many natural resources and could employ many people in them. The corruption, though, is out of this world.
I remember that article! I did an oral report on Afghanistan in high school. That's where I learned about 'buz kashi'. The class roared when I told then that they just recently outlawed the use of chains and knives.
I remember that pic of the old tribesman and his flintlock. There was another issue from around 1960 where the author (Thomas J. Abercrombie, IIRC) toured all the South Asian countries. His piece on Afghanistan was “Kabul: MiGs & Men”, showed a formation of Afghan soldiers wearing German helmets & greatcoats, looking more like Argentines than Muslims.
Everything went to @#%!! when the monarchy was overthrown in 1973. Not that Afghan tribal culture has any upside, bacha bazi, honor killings, & all that. As a Vietnam vet I always believed that communism was the worst thing that could happen to any society.
I was wrong. There is far worse.
I think over ten years in Afghanistan are quite enough. The US doesn’t do well in long protracted wars where our national sovereignty isn’t at stake.
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