Karzai Resisting U.S. Pressure To Destroy Poppy Crops
Nah, it couldn’t be because Karzai’s brother is a known drug kingpin…
The Independent
US wants to bring Colombia tactics to Afghan drugs war
The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, is resisting American pressure to authorise a major programme of crop spraying to eradicate the country’s massive opium crop amid warnings that it would lead to a rise in support for the Taliban.
The plan has been strongly opposed by the British, who hold that it will make the task of the military in Helmand, the province which produces 50 per cent of the opium crop, much harder. Spraying from the air, critics say, carries with it the danger of destroying other crops, causing long-term ecological damage, and affecting the health of livestock.
But according to senior Western and Afghan officials, the American position has been significantly strengthened following the latest poppy harvest, which shows a jump of 34 per cent from last year, which was already a world record. America’s determination has also been sharpened with the evidence that Afghan opium, which now accounts for 93 per cent of the world’s supply, has started reaching markets in the United States.
The recent appointment of a former US ambassador to Colombia as envoy to Kabul is seen as the most overt move by Washington to ensure that spraying takes place in Afghanistan. William Wood, who has acquired the nickname “Chemical Bill” among British and other Nato officials for his fervent belief in chemical spraying, was in the team which implemented “Plan Colombia”, which involved aerial spraying in the Latin American state in an attempt to eliminate cocaine production.
The policy in Colombia came under severe criticism with claims that it damaged legitimate crops and ultimately failed in its aims of destroying the coca crop. However, during his confirmation hearing before Congress, Mr Wood said the Colombian option may be repeated in Afghanistan and General Peter Pace, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, has also voiced the opinion that it could be a template for Afghanistan. Members of the Colombian security forces are already training Afghan police in counter-narcotics.
A recent meeting of the Afghan cabinet, according to senior officials, came close to approving the use of spraying on a limited, experimental basis. However President Karzai is said to have agreed to delay the decision after impassioned pleas from the ministers of Agriculture and Public Health. The issue remains immensely sensitive and yesterday President Karzai’s spokesman insisted: “Our view is there should be a comprehensive policy to tackle the problem, including the provision of alternative livelihoods. It was decided that we will not start crop spraying. This was a unanimous decision by the government.”
Yet Ahmed Zia Massoud, one of Afghanistan’s two vice-presidents, has publicly declared his support for spraying. He said: “I have no doubt that the efforts of Britain and the international community in fighting the opium trade in Afghanistan are well-intentioned, and we are grateful for their support. But that policy has not worked and the time has come for us to adopt a more forceful approach.
“We must switch from ground-based eradication to aerial spraying. The opium directly supports those who are killing Afghan and international troops. Failure to achieve a substantial reduction in the opium crop will be equivalent to supporting the Taliban.”
A US diplomatic source said: “There is absolutely no evidence that spraying causes harm to people or cattle. Everyone has seen the rise in the poppy harvest, and obviously the current policy is not working.”
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Karzai really wants to crawl into bed with the Taliban it seems.
Why is there any argument about this at all? This crap winds up right on oyr streets and is a double victory for the taliban. I say spray it and salt the earth at the same time so we don’t have to spray the same fields again for the next 500 years. If you allow the Poppy to grow on your land, the land is destroyed for ten lifetimes.
Next problem…
October 3rd, 2007 at 8:03 pmSo does anyone have any idea where most of this opium goes, anyways? I mean, if it winds up here then its a real problem, but if it goes to Russia and helps to rot their country out as a great big karmic thank-you-very–fucking-much-for-all-the-world’s-AK-47s, then just how sad am I supposed to be about all this?
October 3rd, 2007 at 8:10 pmYou have to spray them. Spray them and save Europe - the main consumer of this export. Iran too.
Maybe the key to all this is dry up the Heroin and Iran will start coming around. Europe as well.
October 3rd, 2007 at 11:03 pmTurn that shit into a fucking wasteland.
October 4th, 2007 at 12:45 amThis is very shady on the part of Karzai and pisses me off.
Plus he makes no sense: He’s afraid that killing the poppies will piss off the Taliban. Why? Because it will destroy 90% of their income. Which will desroy 90% of their ability to fight. He’s protecting his drug income.
October 4th, 2007 at 12:48 amDean Wormer:
From what I can tell he’s not worried that it will piss off the Taliban in so much as it will piss off the farmers who sell the filth as their only livelihood.
Angry farmer - means of income = potential insurgent.
The main problem is that most Afghani land isn’t the greatest quality for growing true agricultural crops in large numbers, right?
Would it be possible to secure an area, invest in factories or industries, torch the poppies and then bustle the farmers into factory jobs? Or are they all too decentralised for that to work?
That way you’d switch them from an agrarian to industrial society, ensure people still had jobs so there was no incentive to join the terrorist or insurgent groups, you’d remove the main source of the opiate drug problem and cut off a source of income from the terrorists.
October 4th, 2007 at 1:47 amI doubt if any heroin addicts read this blog site, and they wouldn’t care that they’re financing terrorism. Probably traded the PC for heroin, anyway. Going to have to start smacking heroin addicts up side the head. Even snitching on any one one might know, call 911.
October 4th, 2007 at 2:38 amThey’re not going to support the Taliban if that doesn’t pay either. I’d rather focus on cutting off the Taliban’s financial oxygen supply than worry about them recruiting farmers who can be subsidized to grow something else.
October 4th, 2007 at 2:41 amMarijuana/hashish and opium production are so deeply intertwined in the fabric of Afghanistan/Taliban, IMO, they must all be dealt with as one problem. Why try to defeat the Taliban if you do not crush their source of income at the same time? Why try to eradicate their source of income if you do not crush the Taliban at the same time? It is a symbiotic relationship. They need/feed each other.
October 4th, 2007 at 6:55 amHere goes …
Yoy! are you guys gonna slap me around for this …
As Zachary pointed out, it’s, unfortunately, one of the only means of income for the dirt farmers.
Don’t take this the wrong way but: I think this might be a case for some lukewarm form of (socialism) over there. The government needs to take over all the farmlands … not possession, but control … pay the farmers who own the land, and workers who would come in to work the fields. They need to develop, if they don’t have one already, a department of agriculture and map out what is to be grown on what farmland and enforce it, militarily if need be. Opiates are an important fact of life in our LEGAL drug manufacturing in the world. If the farmers have an history of growing the crop, let them … But breathe hard down their necks and regulate everything about the process, right down to the legal selling/exporting for proper processing into pharmaceutical products. Make the farmers responsible “businessmen”. Build processing factories in the country (job creation).
So, A-stan’s biggest export would be opiates? Have you ever had surgery, or needed pain-killers? Opiates. Just remember, a hell of a lot of our troops have been given medicines with opiates in them in order to ease their pain and even save their lives. The poppy plant is not evil. It’s those who control/use it incorrectly that are evil. Karzai’s brother, who it’s been said is a big drug dealer, well, maybe he should be brought in on building this industry. Put the responsibility on his back. Hell, we already bring in people who we WERE fighting with in A-stan and Iraq. Make this guy a responsible businessman, the government breathing down his neck. From THIS industry other industries/businesses will diversify. Putting poppy agriculture under the government’s control and making it a legal industry will take it out of Taliban reach. In addition, viable crops for the region need to be researched and PLANTED. The fucking place is a litter box!
I saw a documentary (PBS I think) right after we went into A-stan. Was a young woman who had left A-stan during the Taliban. When she returned after our invasion she toured areas that had once been lush and green and beautiful. The Taliban had either neglected or destroyed everything. It was green once. It can be green again. The people need to get off their asses and start rebuilding and replanting. Trees, crops, whatever!
If in a couple years something built off my “idea” isn’t doing any better than it is now … then nuke the damn fields.
Anyhow, I’ve had my thunks … Okay. Have at me.
October 4th, 2007 at 6:58 amP.S. -
Bring in pharmaceutical companies to work on this. They have more than enough profits to subsidize these farmers and the government.
October 4th, 2007 at 7:01 am