US trying to help keep opium poppy profits from Taliban

[Enrique]

well, if the profits don't go to the Taliban, they'll go somewhere else, eh?


http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=6667588

US trying to help keep opium poppy profits from Taliban



Associated Press - June 16, 2007 5:03 AM ET

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - As Afghan farmers harvest what is believed to be an especially strong poppy crop this summer, the financial haul is expected to be pretty good.

Problem is, the US says the farmers won't see any of the money.

The Pentagon says it's pretty well-established that the Taliban forces many farmers into growing poppies and then pockets the profits to buy weapons and launch attacks.

Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Richard Douglas tells AP Radio from Kabul the US continues helping the Afghan government destroy poppy fields. He says a big emphasis is on protecting the borders, to keep insurgents from getting to and using the money.

[acmavm]

1. The Pentagon says the Taliban forces the farmers to plant poppies?

Heroin poppies have always been Afganistan's biggest cash crop. Have the Taliban always held a gun to the farmer's heads and made them plant 'em?

I wonder if they plant poppies because there's not much else that they can plant, especially something that brings in the money like poppies.

It's not good to have heroin on the world market. I just want to know what they're going to do with the farmers when they deprive them of the money for their 'crops'.

All we do is bomb Afganistan. We haven't done one damn thing to improve these peoples lives.

We went wrong early, when we supported the war lords. Once they got strong, the told us to kiss off.

We'll never get out of here either.

[Webster Green]

5. They are opium poppies. You can make heroin out of them.

They could also be used for legitimate medical uses, and pay the farmers for their efforts.

We could also legalize opium and heroin, and take the black market out of the equation, but that would make too much sense.

[Donnachaidh]

2. Yeah - the CIA needs the cash to further *democracy* somewhere else in the world.

They'd love to get that kind of income-stream to further their cause. :sarcasm:

[Kagemusha]

3. That is a bunch of complete garbage.

The Taliban only got popular again when it reversed its stance on opium. Pretty well established? Oh please. Please! The farmers may not be the big players in the business but, they're certainly getting something out of it. They just have to deal with the bigger fish and probably don't deal with the Taliban directly. The Taliban probably leave them alone. That'd fit what I've heard at any rate - the Taliban's resurgance is intimately linked with the free willed desire for money on the part of farmers and the local strongmen they answer to. Yes, that's a capitalist concept, but when the chips are down you go with what works.

[thunder rising]

4. I have never heard of a Presidential Order or law passed

to specifically make illegal the CIA's importation of Heroin and Cocaine. Wonder why? It's a good deal, the CIA imports the major loads and the DEA makes sure they have a lock on the market.

I totally agree with the post above that Afghan farmers have been beating the hashish drums (Afghan red anyone?) and growing poppies since the beginning of time. The Taliban cannot show up with enough force to threaten all the farmers to give up their crops. Remember, this is wild country, everybody has guns and allegiances. The best way to get a poor farmer to give up his/her crop come at them with a nickel instead of a bomb.

I guess that the fact that the Taliban had effectively stopped the poppy harvest is being intentionally forgotten. All that can ever be wrong anywhere is either Al-Qaida or the Taliban. I've gotten to where the inclusion of those words included with an accusation is automatically labeled "LIE".