Posted on 06/27/2009 7:28:14 AM PDT by Jet Jaguar
TRIESTE, Italy (Reuters) - Washington is to dramatically overhaul its Afghan anti-drug strategy, phasing out opium poppy eradication, the U.S. envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan told allies on Saturday.
Richard Holbrooke, attending a G8 conference on stabilizing Afghanistan, also discussed efforts to support its August 20 election. Washington has nearly doubled its troops to combat a growing Taliban insurgency and provide security for the vote.
"The Western policies against the opium crop, the poppy crop, have been a failure. They did not result in any damage to the Taliban, but they put farmers out of work," Holbrooke told Reuters after a series of bilateral meetings in Italy.
"We are not going to support crop eradication. We're going to phase it out," he said. The emphasis would instead be on intercepting drugs and chemicals used to make them, and going after drug lords.
He said some crop eradication may still be allowed, but only in limited areas.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Ping
Western policies against west coast marijuana farmers have not solved the problem, only put farmers out of business.
Wouldn’t want to interfere with the Taliban’s livelihood, would we?
The ‘One’ needs a good supply of ‘blow’.....
Cheers!
Same process that should have been used in bolivia and peru would work here. Battalion on-line (two in reserve to cover the activity) ripping up the plants and burning them. Right behind the “razers” AID with seed crops, food for the interim, and expertise. It would have worked in bolivia, and it would work in afghanistan.
Now, the chief of the cocalero union in the 90s is president.
WOW!
Foreign policy has trumped the Drug War at every turn, from Souhteast Asia to Central America and all points in between. Not to mention all that unaccounted for cash can come in handy for funding this and that.
The towels actually outlawed opium when they took power. Eradicated all the opium fields.
The opium will be distributed to old people here in lieu of needed medical treatment.
In loving memory of Michael Jackson, America will no longer stand in the way of opium production.
I guess the figure the region will easier to dominate if their inbreds have the normal supply of their version of crack available to keep everyone properly retarded.
Ooohhh we put the opium farmers out of work. Baaaad. WTF?
“We are not going to support crop eradication. We’re going to phase it out,” he said. The emphasis would instead be on intercepting drugs and chemicals used to make them, and going after drug lords.”
I think it would cost less than the eradication policy or this new policy if we were to simply buy the crop, out-bidding the Taliban and everyone else for it.
Once it was in our hands, it can be destroyed. Meanwhile, a separate program could help farmers move to alternative crops, which would also require assisting in the development of markets for those crops. Still cheaper I bet.
The Taliban is funded through many means, of which Poppies are NOT the main source.
Poppies are one of the only crops the Afghans can plant for themselves that grows in the climate.
I'd rather be given opium than medical treatment if my quality of life would be improved, especially if the medical treatment would not cure me but instead prolong my suffering.
The Drug war is a waste. You can’t fight human nature.
It’s a shame so many “perfect conservatives” support such an unconstitutional restriction on ones freedom.
Supporters of the War on Drugs give the same reasons LIBERALS give when they (the liberals) talk about outlawing guns ...
There are "human nature" aspects, such as using candy to draw children to a pedophile.
Candy isn't good enough any longer.
Interesting article. Thanks.
[Money from drugs and criminal gangs make up roughly 85 to 90 percent of Taliban revenue, estimates John Solomon, a terrorism expert with U.S Military Academy's Counter Terrorism Center. In Pakistan alone, Owais Ghani, governor of northwest Pakistan, puts the Taliban's annual earnings at roughly four billion rupees ($50 million).]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/20/AR2009062000937.html
As I recall this program used a lot of crop substitution initiatives like replacing poppies with cabbage or tobacco or cotton. Afghanistan is about 650,000 square miles with 12 percent arable land while Turkey is about 800,000 square miles with 30 percent arable. Because the opium poppy requires less water or maintenance than most crops a narco crop substitution program may require water and irrigation projects.
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