DEA sets up drug war patsies

This is seriously disturbing news. We're training Afghan soldiers to run drug planes.

FORT BLISS, Texas (AP) -- Sixteen Afghan soldiers have graduated from a new training program at Fort Bliss, armed with knowledge on how to fly Russian-made helicopters in anti-drug missions over their war-torn country. The men will now make their final preparations to head back to Afghanistan, where they are expected to immediately get to work trying to halt the booming narcotics trade.

There will only be 32 of them total, but that's a lot in a country that small and of course they'll be flying US provided aircraft. And guess who'll they be working with?

The soldiers are the first of three classes of pilots, flight engineers and crew chiefs scheduled to come to Fort Bliss for similar training. In Afghanistan, they will work with the Afghan National Interdiction Unit, which works closely with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Yep. There's the DEA busily making "valuable and lasting contributions in the intelligence arena."

Air Force senior Master Sgt. Carlos Torres, who supervised the training, said the Russian-built MI-17 helicopters the soldiers will fly in Afghanistan won't be armed. He would not discuss specifics of the operations, saying only that it was an anti-drug mission.

Talk about sending the lambs to slaughter. Does it really matter what they call it? These guys are going to come under fire.

The way I figure it there's several possibilities. The mission could be straight surveillance, but it seems unlikely. They have drones for that. It's more likely they're about to launch some kind of underhanded eradication campaign. It seems likely they will try herbicide bombing which would still not qualify as "armed" in the traditional sense. A even more frightening possibility, and one quite possible considering the White House will never disclose what it's really doing under its war secrets priviledge, is that they will use Afghanistan to try out the fusarium scheme they wanted to use in Colombia.

Even worse, if the eradication campaign succeeds, there's no provision I know of to provide an alternative economy so it will only contribute to the instability of the people, who will then be more likely to hook up with potential benefactors in the Taliban or AQ, who will be able to offer protection and paying employment.

But no matter what the mission really is, I seriously doubt all 32 members of that class will be around to attend their five year reunion.