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2008-02-14 Afghanistan

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Posted by ed 2008-02-14 06:47|| || Front Page|| [5 views ] Top

#1 I thought it was going to be the plastic turkey. Or that fire does not melt steel. Or that President Bush was a draft dodger. Or that John Kerry earned three purple hearts. Or that HRC opposed the Iraq war. Or anything at all about global warming. Or that there were no weapons of mass destruction. Etc. Etc.

Posted by Excalibur 2008-02-14 09:51|| 2008-02-14 09:51|| Front Page Top

#2 Putin's just jealous because Russia lost the opium concession to the U.S.

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2008-02-14 12:42|| 2008-02-14 12:42|| Front Page Top

#3 I do wonder why we haven't taken over the Opium areas and destroyed the crops. From what i understand out niceness to the farmers has resulted in their siding with the Taliban so we really haven't gotten anywhere.

I could be wrong of course but come on, who didn't see this coming?

Posted by rjschwarz 2008-02-14 13:02|| 2008-02-14 13:02|| Front Page Top

#4 The devil is in the details. The flow of Afghan and Burmese drugs from the Golden Triangle is not done by the CIA, but "managed" by the CIA. There is a difference.

The locals actually deal in the drugs, but the CIA has to work in the background, diverting much of the money and guns away from terrorists.

Going all the way back to the days of Nixon, it represents recognizing some cruel truths. First of all, that prohibitions do not work, and it is close to impossible to stop the drug trade as any other market economy.

Second, if allowed to operate too freely, the drug trade would result in guns and drugs supplying terrorists and revolutionaries around the world.

So the CIA keeps the flow at market levels, without touching the drugs itself, and diverts much of the money to international banking establishments that are told to "lose it".

There was some suggestion that the BCCI scandal was based in some those bankers deciding to pocket some of those illicit gains, and that was a "no-no", so they had to be spanked.

The guns are either given to friendly powers or dumped at sea, an old tradition.

It is a covert program, because a lot of fools wouldn't grasp the concept and get huffy, but at the same time it is a far cry from the CIA actually shipping the drugs.

It's a "big picture" thing. Oddly enough, even back in the 70s, there was fear that unless it was done, it would create something like the War on Terror, except over drugs, not Islam.

Posted by Anonymoose 2008-02-14 16:36|| 2008-02-14 16:36|| Front Page Top

#5 Moose, expect a knock on your door any minute from two guys in black. Whatever you do, don't look at the shiny pen-like thingy they have.

Posted by ed 2008-02-14 17:24|| 2008-02-14 17:24|| Front Page Top

#6 ed: I got to see a fascinating videotaped interview between LTC Bo Gritz (before he went crazy), and the late drug lord ruler of an enclave in Burma, General Khun Sa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khun_Sa

Gritz had been sent there to inquire about US POWs, being the one American who would not be killed on sight in the region. Khun Sa told him that he didn't know anything about that, but to take a message back to Washington for him.

The message was that Khun Sa wanted out of the drug business, which at the time was about 1/3rd of the world supply of heroin. To do this, he wanted US advisers and agricultural assistance to convert all his poppy fields to conventional crops. He emphasized the US advisers, and for a long term commitment, because he wanted off the US enemies' list, and no second thoughts about drugs.

Gritz ran back to D.C. with his message, and was given a serious cold shoulder treatment once he started talking about stopping the heroin trade. Nobody would answer his phone calls, though he had been sent by Reagan himself.

On top of it, Burma got threatened to immediately kill Khun Sa or else have its military aid cut off. So overnight, the Burmese papers were filled with stories about the vicious combat against Khun Sa's army.

Gritz went back a year later, very discreetly because of "the war", to find that no only hadn't there been any effort to nail Khun Sa at all, but what before had been mountainous jungle now had a modern, four-lane blacktop highway going from the enclave to Thailand.

He also noted Thai army trucks hauling enormous amounts of opium from the enclave to Thailand.

Khun Sa assured Gritz that the war had only been on paper, and once Washington was assured that the flow of drugs was not just continuing, but increasing, they stopped pressuring the Burmese government.

End of anecdote. However, please note that with all our forces in Afghanistan, the US has made little or no effort at poppy eradication.

It really is an exercise in realpolitik. Either the drugs flow at a market rate, or the US has to fight a second War on Terror, this time about drugs instead of Islam.

Posted by Anonymoose 2008-02-14 19:37|| 2008-02-14 19:37|| Front Page Top

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