US soldiers fear Afghan drug war as opium profits find their way to...

[IndianaGreen]

US soldiers fear Afghan drug war as opium profits find their way to al-Qa'ida
By Nick Meo in Kandahar
14 August 2004

US soldiers in Afghanistan fear they are about to be launched into a bloody war on drugs amid mounting evidence that the country's booming opium trade is funding terrorists linked to al-Qa'ida.

The US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, raised the prospect of the 17,000 combat troops based in the country taking an active role against the drugs trade on a visit to Kabul this week when he spoke of a need for a new strategy.

<snip>

Taking on Afghanistan's powerful drug lords could force US troops to confront dangerous new enemies, however.

One US soldier in Kandahar said: "We start taking out drug guys, and they will start taking out our guys." Many of the roadside bombs and sporadic guerrilla attacks on US soldiers in southern Afghanistan are already blamed on criminal gangs seeking to spread chaos as well as Taliban insurgents.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=551300

[Dangerman]

1. Very ironic...

We were "winning" the war on "terra" by ousting (temporarily) the Taliban, only to lose the war on drugs.

[lebkuchen]

2. Back in May of 2001 the Bushies gave the Taliban $44 million

supposedly to eradicate poppy fields.

Not only are the poppy fields going "great guns," but the Taliban will have our military resources bleeding in Afghanistan for years to come, just like they bled the Soviets.

[saigon68]

3. IT'S THE GLOBAL WAR ON DRUGS

"More tax money coming our way" shouted the Drug administrators.

[MrPrax]

4. Drugs in AF? Not the real threat...

According to The Bush Administration:

"Cues from chatter" gathered around the world are raising concerns that terrorists might try to attack the domestic food and drug supply, particularly illegally imported prescription drugs," acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Lester M. Crawford says.

Canada is the big narco-terrorists, why worry about AF...

Are these guys serious about anything?

[Minstrel Boy]

5. Follow the money, follow the drugs: same difference.

Those narco dollars don't launder themselves.

[goforit]

6. So Poppy Bush is making a killing$$$$$$$$, eh?

[starroute]

7. The CIA created the Afghan drug trade in the 80's

...to finance the fight of the Afghan mujeheddin against the Soviets. The by-products of that little Afghan operation include, at a minimum:

- al-Qaeda

- the massive corruption associated with BCCI (founded in Pakistan in the 70's, but really got rolling as a channel for money-laundering the Afghan heroin profits)

- Pakistani nuclear proliferation (funded originally by BCCI and winked at by the US because of Pakistan's role as a base for the Afghan operation)

- and possibly even deeper and nastier corruption.

In particular, the twin questions of (1) where the heroin profits are going now that there are no longer Soviets to fight and (2) why the Bush administration keeps supporting and covering up for Pakistan despite its blatant support of terrorism form a nice little intertwined puzzle that nobody to my knowledge has ever answered satisfactorily.

[found object]

8. is Rummy an addict? seriously

he tends to make a lot of trips to a country that some probably consider to be Heaven on Earth.

[stickdog]

9. "We start taking out drug guys, and they will start taking out our guys."

Mob wars are hell, aren't they?

[Massacure]

10. How hard is it to find opium plants from the air?

It can't be that hard to drop napalm on the plants, or to drop a helicopter full or marines to burn them, can it?

[shraby]

11. Poppy Bush doesn't

want that to happen, so it doesn't.

[Minstrel Boy]

12. I've read several accounts from those who served in Afghanistan

that they were under orders not to interfere with the opium crops.