Opium Harvest at Record Level in Afghanistan. Taliban is back!

[spanone]

Damn, those pesky real terrorists are back in Afghanistan while we have wasted lives and money in Iraq. How can YOU let this happen MR. PRESIDENT??

~snip~ KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 2 — Afghanistan’s opium harvest this year has reached the highest levels ever recorded, showing an increase of almost 50 percent from last year, the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, said Saturday in Kabul.------
~snip~ “This year’s harvest will be around 6,100 metric tons of opium — a staggering 92 percent of total world supply. It exceeds global consumption by 30 percent,” Mr. Costa said at a news briefing.

He said the harvest increased by 49 percent from the year before, and it drastically outpaced the previous record of 4,600 metric tons, set in 1999 while the Taliban governed the country. The area cultivated increased by 59 percent, with more than 400,000 acres planted with poppies in 2006 compared with less than 260,000 in 2005.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/world/asia/03afghan.html?ei=5059&en=8ca35abbc443c296&hp=&ex=1157342400&partner=AOL&pagewanted=print

[Igel]

1. And they say that Sunnis and Shi'ites can't work together ...

In re: Hezbollah.

"The business empire of the Shiite organization also extends into the drug trade. The Bekaa Valley, which it controls, is a major center for growing poppies and cannabis; here also, heroin is produced from raw materials arriving from places like Afghanistan and the Golden Triangle. Hezbollah earns large percentages of the estimated $1 billion drug trade flowing out of the Bekaa. Much of the hashish and heroin emanating from there eventually arrive in Europe -- where Hezbollah members also are involved in smuggling, car theft and distribution of counterfeit goods and currency."

http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=269848

[Horse with no Name]

2. This is Act II

Act I: War on Terror
Act II: War on Drugs

Now watch them enact some more arcane drug laws over here so we don't have to fight them over there.

[Disturbed]

3. Taliban were against the growing of Opium Poppies

In fact, they recieved $43 Million from the Busholini Regime to combat the growing of this crop. This is another strange situation in the bizzare world of The Busholini era.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

5. That's the way I remember it also. nt

[etherealtruth]

4. This was very easy to predict ...

Again, Chimp policy: attack, kill and plan for nothing. It is sickeningly apparent that the "attack/kill" part is all the Chimp cares about. I think this concern even overshadows corporate profits.