Karzai, Bush, Pledges to Reduce Afghan Poppy up in Smoke

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/8599

Karzai, Bush, Pledges to Reduce Afghan Poppy up in Smoke
by Sherwood Ross | Jul 9 2007


Just a little over two years ago, at a White House press conference on May 23, 2005, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan said his country's poppy crop was shrinking and, "if this trend continues, we'll have no poppies, hopefully, in Afghanistan in another five or six years."

"That's a promise we have given to the world and to the Afghan people," Karzai added, "and that's a promise that we will deliver on. Hold us accountable on that." President Bush chimed in that President Karzai was "very forthcoming" about the desire to eradicate the poppy, the raw ingredient of heroin.

Yet, far from reducing, much less eradicating, the poppy crop, and in defiance of U.S. and NATO military pressure, Afghan farmers planted about 400,000 acres of opium poppies last year, a 59% increase over 2005, while the war swirling around the opium harvest has also grown--- in intensity. Seems the Bush-Karzai promises have gone up in smoke.


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"Distracted by Iraq, the U.S. only belatedly began serious counter-narcotics and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan," Anderson says. In the vacuum, the Taliban returned, and most foreign experts and Afghan officials Anderson spoke with said Taliban holds the initiative.

One of Wankel's mercenaries described the Afghan war as "redneck heaven." He explained, "You get to run around the desert on A.T.V.s and pickups, shoot guns, and get paid for it. Man, it's the perfect job." DynCorp men said they became contractors because the pay was much higher than civilian jobs back in the States. That's the same reason Afghan farmers give for growing poppies instead of wheat. Drug running in the past has also been a source of illicit cash for the CIA, which can spend as it pleases without Congressional oversight.

Since heroin users seem to be able to get their supply come what may, why not just legalize its use in America as well as its production in Afghanistan? That way, heroin could be brought in legally, taking the profit out of smuggling. Decriminalizing drug addiction in the U.S. would also empty hundreds of thousands of prison cells, at a great savings to taxpayers, and switch the emphasis from incarceration to drug treatment. Over time, this might also reduce USA's high crime rate, much of it committed by addicts to buy heroin. Finally, Afghan farmers could make a buck off their crops and the shooting in the poppy fields might subside. The only losers in this scheme might be some "rednecks" cheated out of their unique "shoot guns" fix. Maybe Dick Cheney will take them hunting.