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2009-10-28 Afghanistan

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Posted by tipper 2009-10-28 07:26|| || Front Page|| [3 views ] Top

#1 I have never understood why we allowed the opium to be grown and cultivated. Yeah it's hard to kill the stuff and you don't want to alienate the population but a series of sweeps, boots on the ground, to destroy the crops and or kill the farmers as enemies would have gone a long way to shutting down the war. It takes money to fight and bribe your way through a war after all.

Posted by rjschwarz 2009-10-28 14:06|| 2009-10-28 14:06|| Front Page Top

#2 It is said -- repeatedly -- that the Taliban have a two-year supply of the stuff in storage at the moment.

Posted by trailing wife">trailing wife 2009-10-28 14:18|| 2009-10-28 14:18|| Front Page Top

#3 rjschwarz, if I recall correctly, the British were in charge of Helmand province until recently, and they hadn't the manpower or the political will to face the opium situation directly.

Posted by trailing wife">trailing wife 2009-10-28 14:20|| 2009-10-28 14:20|| Front Page Top

#4 Fighting a drug war in the fields or labs is only a notional effort. The solution to the problem is found in the streets and at the consumer level. Thanks to a very aggressive advertising campaign by Hollywood, we've never quite been able as a society, to come to grips with that fact.

Posted by Besoeker 2009-10-28 14:28|| 2009-10-28 14:28|| Front Page Top

#5 COIN/Small wars are hard, frustrating business. Perseverence and finding the enemies true CV is the key. Bottomline is that you need a good amount of the populace on your side and the gov't has to be seen as legit by most locals for the foreign Coiner's to be able to be successful. Maybe we need to flip some of these drug dealers. Karzai is a pain in the ass. Where there's a will...but I'm pretty sure our C-n-C doesn't have it or a clue. Again, I have not seen a commander's intent statement by Obama and doubt I will.

Posted by Broadhead6 2009-10-28 21:44|| 2009-10-28 21:44|| Front Page Top

23:58 trailing wife
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