Losing the War on Terror - Losing the War on Drugs

Originally posted by Nadir at LastChocolateCity.com

The following news doesn’t bode well for two of the United States’ ill-conceived wars: the so-called “War on Terror” and the so-called “War on Drugs”.

From The New York Times:

Afghanistan’s opium harvest this year has reached the highest levels ever recorded, showing an increase of almost 50 percent from last year, the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, said Saturday in Kabul.

He said the increase in cultivation was fueled by the resurgence of Taliban rebels in the south, the country’s prime opium growing region. As the insurgents have stepped up their attacks, they have also encouraged and profited from the drug trade, promising protection to growers if they worked to expand their opium operations.

The Taleban had all but eliminated the Afghan opium trade when they were in power. After the US invasion, Afghan poppy farmers enjoyed record crops and revenue once again.

It seems the US has shown the Taleban the error of their ways. Opium is one of Afghanistan’s top imports (35 percent of its gross domestic product). According to the UN, the group is now working with farmers to increase revenue and fund their campaign to overthrow the government of US puppet (and former Unocal exec) Hamid Karzai. Could US intervention turn the Taleban from hated government to popular liberation movement?

The US invasion of Afghanistan didn’t just temproarily free Afghan opium farmers from the grip of the Taleban. It also paved the way for US taxpayer funded reconstruction projects and a well-documented natural gas pipeline that the Taleban had nixed as well. Now that pipeline project is endangered by anti-government violence in neighboring Pakistan. US supported military dictator General Pervez Musharraf has received more arms from United States weapons manufacturers to combat rising opposition.

While this instability in the region will make it harder for US forces and will increase anti-American sentiment in Central Asia, it will also increase profits for George W. Bush’s family holdings in security and weapons companies. Former CIA director and former president George H.W. Bush escaped prosecution during the Iran-Contra scandal where cocaine sales were used to finance weapons sales to Iran and Nicaraguan contrarebels. Many of Bush II’s adminstration officials were intimately involved in that operation. Could they be up to their old tricks again?

Who is really losing these wars on terror and drugs? The United States taxpayer is funding all of this nonsense and then is most endangered by anti-American sentiment abroad and the influx of opium at home where heroin induced deaths have been on the rise in urban centers all over the country.

Thanks, Mr. President!! You’re doing a heckuva job!