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Afghanistan | |||||||||
US strikes on Taliban opium labs won't work, say Afghan farmers | |||||||||
2017-11-24 | |||||||||
[AlAhram] As U.S. and Afghan forces pound Taliban ...Arabic for students... drug factories this week, farmers in the country's largest opium producing-province and narcotics experts say the strategy just repeats previous failed efforts to stamp out the trade. U.S. Army General John Nicholson, who heads NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... -led forces in Afghanistan, announced on Monday a new strategy of attacking opium factories, saying he wanted to hit the Taliban "where it hurts, in their narcotics financing". Critics say the policy risks further civilian casualties and turning large swathes of the population dependent on poppy cultivation against the Afghan government. "The Taliban will not be affected by this as much as ordinary people," said Mohammad Nabi, a poppy farmer in Nad Ali district in the southern province of Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... , the heartland of opium production. "Farmers are not growing poppies for fun. If factories are closed and businesses are gone, then how will they provide food for their families?"
...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said last week that output of opium from poppy seeds in Afghanistan, the world's main source of heroin, stood at around 9,000 metric tons in 2017, worth an estimated $1.4 billion on leaving the farms. In Helmand, cultivation area increased 79 percent.
U.S. troops have long been accused of causing unnecessary collateral damage and civilian deaths. The United States says it takes every precaution to avoid civilian casualties. The four-star general emphasised that farmers were not the targets. "They are largely compelled to grow the poppy and this is kind of a tragic part of the story," said Nicholson. "WHACK-A-MOLE" Experts, however, question whether the new strategy will have an impact on Taliban financing.
Another analyst said it was simply a futile game of "whack-a-mole." Those familiar with the drug industry in Afghanistan said it would only take three or four days to replace a lab, which generally has a low sunk-cost.
"Drugs are elemental to the political economy of Afghanistan, to those who rule and to those who oppose that rule," said one analyst, asking not to be named. Prior to being ousted by U.S.-led forces in 2001, the Taliban virtually eliminated the trade, saying it was forbidden by Islam.
However, a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... they have not made any serious headway in stemming the rise in drug production.
The Taliban said that U.S. forces were mistaken in their targeting and were hitting civilians.
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Posted by:trailing wife |
#12 yep |
Posted by: Frank G 2017-11-24 20:04 |
#11 Some idiot must have written that. You don't get opium from poppy seeds. You have to slit the poppy head and collect the liquid. |
Posted by: DonM 2017-11-24 17:07 |
#10 Carfentanil seems to be a big problem wherever it is coming from. |
Posted by: JohnQC 2017-11-24 15:54 |
#9 Last year a new rail line was inaugurated from Afghanistan to China, greatly shortening the time to get goods to Shanghai. The USPS (as best I can tell) will deliver all packages from foreign sources even if they have not passed any customs inspection, and even if the post office has no information about what the package contains or whence it originated. It is far cheaper to ship parcels from China to a US address than it is to ship parcels within the US. It is known that the deadly drug carfentanyl is being shipped into the USA this way. Doesn't anyone see this as a problem? |
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2017-11-24 15:37 |
#8 Never let anyone from Afghanistan or any of the countries that border it into this country. Tell that to the federal judges who keep obstructing the efforts of POTUS to do just that. Or better yet, impeach the SOB's. |
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2017-11-24 15:30 |
#7 There will always be a demand for opiates and there will always be evil men eager to supply opiates for profit. That's why I don't give a rat's ass about the hearts and minds of poppy growers or how they're going to feed their families. Screw 'em, bomb 'em, poison 'em and then leave them to the tender mercies of their beloved Taliban. Never let anyone from Afghanistan or any of the countries that border it into this country. |
Posted by: Abu Uluque 2017-11-24 15:02 |
#6 How do you dry up the demand for opiates in the U.S.? |
Posted by: JohnQC 2017-11-24 13:42 |
#5 If factories are closed and businesses are gone, then how will they provide food for their families? Ask me if I care. |
Posted by: Abu Uluque 2017-11-24 13:28 |
#4 Note the squealing. That tells ya the piggies are hurting |
Posted by: Frank G 2017-11-24 09:08 |
#3 Ha! Ain't nobody that would fall for that! |
Posted by: gorb 2017-11-24 03:54 |
#2 "The government must provide jobs so people can feed their families and survive," said poppy farmer Haji Daoud in Sangin, Helmand. "It should provide security and infrastructure." Dope dealers don't want 'jobs,' they want porous borders and free access to public markets. |
Posted by: Besoeker 2017-11-24 02:23 |
#1 Roundup. KC 10. Some assembly required. |
Posted by: gorb 2017-11-24 01:24 |