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| Afghanistan |
| StrategyPage Afghanistan: The Real Enemy Stays In The Shadows |
| 2008-07-30 |
| What really runs things in Afghanistan are the drug gangs. They pull more strings than the Taliban, and have more firepower. The drug gangs use the Taliban to distract the armed foreigners who, if they wanted to, could shut down much of the drug business. So could the Afghan government, but too many officials have a financial interest in leaving the heroin production alone. The drugs have brought unprecedented prosperity to those in positions of power. The few hundred people who run the drug business are also getting rich, but not insanely so. Most of the money is spread around to insure that heroin production and exporting is not interfered with. Meanwhile, the Taliban are mainly all about getting themselves killed. The Taliban have to operate in large groups (a hundred or more gunmen) in order to be able to intimidate locals into working with them. But groups this large can be detected by NATO air and electronic reconnaissance. When the Taliban get too close to a town or major road, out come the smart bombs and ground troops. Great slaughter follows, with dozens of dead Taliban, plus others captured. The prisoners increasingly tell the same story (recruited in Pakistani religious schools for holy war, or brought into Pakistan by al Qaeda to fight infidel invaders.) The Afghan media is bribed to play up real or imagined stories of foreign troops killing Afghan civilians. Afghan troops and police kill far more civilians, but that's not news, because that's been going on forever. The important things is that the Taliban and drug gangs will pay journalists for "foreigner kills Afghans" stories, with a bonus if the Western press picks it up (and they do grab some of the better done fabrications). |
| Posted by:ed |
| #5 I am sure there is a smut or virus in our inventory to cause some fatal plant disease in poppies. I doubt there is the political will in Washington to ever use such a weapon. The Sierra Club types and the organized crime types both having the potential of being very upset. |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-07-30 19:21 |
| #4 Should have implemented biomassfuel plants years ago to address two needs, those of traditional agrarian growers and some sort of domestic fuel production. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-07-30 18:20 |
| #3 So where do you find an Afghan equal to Presidente Uribe? Many of the rural population don't like being narco producers. They need leadership that has Uribe's q ualities, seems to me. |
| Posted by: Richard of Oregon 2008-07-30 18:12 |
| #2 As for the politicians who are owned by the drug lords? Have them tried quickly and promptly executed by the clean ones. OS, I doubt you could find ten non-corrupt politicians in all of Afghanistan, and those ten (if they exist) are targeted for replacement by bought men. We rebuilt the Afghan government too quickly. We should STILL be occupying the country, and telling its citizens what to do. Afghanistan is a continuing cesspool of corruption, and it's going to take ten years or more to develop a government that would be even mildly responsible. In the meantime, a couple of ARCLIGHT strikes down through the poppy fields would get the attention of the growers. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-07-30 14:52 |
| #1 What I said years ago: Go after the opium production. Buy off the farmers with cash (pay them what they would make off opium to instead grow food), burn ALL the poppy crops in place (defoliate). Anyone fighting, in addition to getting the crops and farm demolished, will get their ground seeded with defoliants that will prevent growth of any crop for years. Basically lay down the law and let them know if they resist, they will die. As for the politicians who are owned by the drug lords? Have them tried quickly and promptly executed by the clean ones. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-07-30 12:28 |