Afghanistan's Catch-22

It's no big secret that opium poppy production has increased since we "liberated" the country to the point where it now supplies 3/4 of the world's heroin. It's also well known that the profits are enriching warlords, corrupt government officials and financing the resurgence of the Taliban. The trade, comprising a third of the country's economy, has become so lucrative as to be irresistible to the struggling indigenous peasants and since we bombed the country into smithereens, there is virtually no other way to make money anyway, so record levels of poppy cultivation are being reported in areas not previously used for this purpose.

Pentagon spokesperson, Peter Rodman say the drugs trade is corrupting Afghan government institutions and that without vigorous eradication, security would not improve quickly. The trouble is if the US attempts to institute a Plan Colombia style eradication program, the ensuing uprising in the no-man's land outside of Kabul would make the insurgency in Iraq look like child's play.

For more background on this story, read my posts here, here, here, here, here and especially here.