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Is this the mission in Afghanistan? Apparently the Taliban want to get rid of the opium fields, so we are guarding them. Why?
Afghanistan is, by far, the largest grower and exporter of opium in the world today, cultivating a 92 percent market share of the global opium trade. But what may shock many is the fact that the US military has been specifically tasked with guarding Afghan poppy fields, from which opium is derived, in order to protect this multibillion dollar industry that enriches Wall Street, the CIA, MI6, and various other groups that profit big time from this illicit drug trade scheme.
Afghanistan is never going to be a democracy. You still can't go two feet off the main roads without driving into mine fields.
It was a relatively modern Westernized urban nation up through the 1970s until 30 years of near-continuous foreign meddling and civil war destroyed the place.
Is this the mission in Afghanistan? Apparently the Taliban want to get rid of the opium fields, so we are guarding them. Why?
Afghanistan is, by far, the largest grower and exporter of opium in the world today, cultivating a 92 percent market share of the global opium trade. But what may shock many is the fact that the US military has been specifically tasked with guarding Afghan poppy fields, from which opium is derived, in order to protect this multibillion dollar industry that enriches Wall Street, the CIA, MI6, and various other groups that profit big time from this illicit drug trade scheme.
This is news to you? Seriously? Hahahahaha. I think I knew that this was a huge part of the Afghan economy before high school.
Opium is much more profitable for the folks there than any other agricultural product. You won't win hearts and minds by shutting down the opium trade there. I'm sort of stunned that this would be news to anyone.
The war on drugs would be the first thing I eliminated the budget for. foreign military intervention would be #2.
And people wonder why we have massive deficits? Washington has simply not kept our best interests at heart in the decisions they have made.... Still see no reason for the OWS movement?
Is this the mission in Afghanistan? Apparently the Taliban want to get rid of the opium fields, so we are guarding them. Why?
Afghanistan is, by far, the largest grower and exporter of opium in the world today, cultivating a 92 percent market share of the global opium trade. But what may shock many is the fact that the US military has been specifically tasked with guarding Afghan poppy fields, from which opium is derived, in order to protect this multibillion dollar industry that enriches Wall Street, the CIA, MI6, and various other groups that profit big time from this illicit drug trade scheme.
This is news to you? Seriously? Hahahahaha. I think I knew that this was a huge part of the Afghan economy before high school.
Opium is much more profitable for the folks there than any other agricultural product. You won't win hearts and minds by shutting down the opium trade there. I'm sort of stunned that this would be news to anyone.
Yes it is news to me. I heard about the opium fields years ago, but haven't heard anything since then, so I had no idea this market was so huge and flourishing.
This is an excellent article on the history and where it stands as of 2010.
Quote:
In mid-2009, the U.S. embassy launched a multi-agency effort, called the Afghan Threat Finance Cell, to cut Taliban drug monies through financial controls. But one American official soon compared this effort to "punching jello." By August 2009, a frustrated Obama administration had ordered the U.S. military to "kill or capture" 50 Taliban-connected druglords who were placed on a classified "kill list."
Since the record crop of 2007, opium production has, in fact, declined somewhat -- to 6,900 tons last year (still over 90% of the world's opium supply). While U.N. analysts attribute this 20% reduction largely to eradication efforts, a more likely cause has been the global glut of heroin that came with the Afghan opium boom, and which had depressed the price of poppies by 34%. In fact, even this reduced Afghan opium crop is still far above total world demand, which the U.N. estimates at 5,000 tons per annum.
Preliminary reports on the 2010 Afghan opium harvest, which starts next month, indicate that the drug problem is not going away. Some U.S. officials who have surveyed Helmand's opium heartland see signs of an expanded crop. Even the U.N. drug experts who have predicted a continuing decline in production are not optimistic about long-term trends. Opium prices might decline for a few years, but the price of wheat and other staple crops is dropping even faster, leaving poppies as by far the most profitable crop for poor Afghan farmers.
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