Shouldn't there be two sides in a War on Drugs?
Thomas Keister
July 30, 2007
While the vast majority of negative press seems to be centered on Iraq, it's not exactly comforting to hear new and excting reports of what may be the true agenda of the efforts against the Taliban in Afghanistan. The evidence has managed to creep in under the wire of mainstream media here and there, with one of my favorites being the photo of Donald Rumsfeld shaking the hands of an opium warlord in Afghanistan back in the day, but now from Britain comes especially disturbing news.
In an article at dailymail.co.uk, Mark Nicol writes about video footage (link available at that site) that shows British troops being ordered not to damage the opium plants in the middle of machine gun bursts, rocket-propelled grenades detonating, and even a Royal Air Force air strike. This comes in light of claims from the British government in the past of their committment to eradicating heroin production in Afghanistan.
Now, one would have to excuse me for not being up on my British politics, but I would like to be so bold as to think that maybe holding such a high "committment" to destroying the Afghan heroin trade would entail actually wanting to destroy the very plant that produces the drug in question? Then again, I said I was no expert in the matter.
The Ministry of Defense said on July 28 it was not the troops role to destroy the poppy crops, but to provide security to farmers, so they can be encouraged to grow "alternatives." Um...okay. What better way to encourage new ideas for crops than by simply forcing the alternative by oh, I don't know, maybe destroying the opium poppies? What, ahem, rational explanation does the British government think their people, and by extension the world-at-large, is going to swallow regarding the urgency in going forward but not accomplishing nothing much in the end but ensuring the safety of the opium warlords' profit margins. Maybe their government hung around our government too long, cause something is in the air, and it does not smell like flowers.
In an article at dailymail.co.uk, Mark Nicol writes about video footage (link available at that site) that shows British troops being ordered not to damage the opium plants in the middle of machine gun bursts, rocket-propelled grenades detonating, and even a Royal Air Force air strike. This comes in light of claims from the British government in the past of their committment to eradicating heroin production in Afghanistan.
Now, one would have to excuse me for not being up on my British politics, but I would like to be so bold as to think that maybe holding such a high "committment" to destroying the Afghan heroin trade would entail actually wanting to destroy the very plant that produces the drug in question? Then again, I said I was no expert in the matter.
The Ministry of Defense said on July 28 it was not the troops role to destroy the poppy crops, but to provide security to farmers, so they can be encouraged to grow "alternatives." Um...okay. What better way to encourage new ideas for crops than by simply forcing the alternative by oh, I don't know, maybe destroying the opium poppies? What, ahem, rational explanation does the British government think their people, and by extension the world-at-large, is going to swallow regarding the urgency in going forward but not accomplishing nothing much in the end but ensuring the safety of the opium warlords' profit margins. Maybe their government hung around our government too long, cause something is in the air, and it does not smell like flowers.