Article

2017-08-10 Afghanistan

Opium fuels the stalemate in America's longest war

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Posted by Skidmark 2017-08-10 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11129 views ] Top

#1 Pushtun-i-stan? Wouldn't it be simpler to dissolve the Durand Line and make a Pushtun-centric Narco-state. Then put up a big fence and leave the inmates to prey on each other. Wouldn't the new Afghanistan and Pakistan be better off? At least it would acknowledge the fact that the Durand Line is largely a fiction at the local level...

Posted by magpie 2017-08-10 10:27|| 2017-08-10 10:27|| Front Page Top

#2 Take the ~~oil~~ opium.

Posted by gorb 2017-08-10 10:53|| 2017-08-10 10:53|| Front Page Top

#3 So the addiction of many in the West to opioids is the root cause of the continuing carnage in Afghanistan. WHY are so many falling into the opium trap? What can be done to help them? If nothing, then perhaps we should just buy all the opium directly from the farmers and give it away free - overall it would probably cost less in both lives and dollars.

Posted by Glenmore 2017-08-10 11:04|| 2017-08-10 11:04|| Front Page Top

#4 Give them a replacement crop.
Like Hops.

Posted by Skidmark 2017-08-10 11:08|| 2017-08-10 11:08|| Front Page Top

#5 I doubt that a lot of Afghan opium makes it to the US. It's mainly Chinese and Mexican opioids

Posted by Frank G 2017-08-10 11:15|| 2017-08-10 11:15|| Front Page Top

#6 Sorry Skid but from all I've read there is no crop that comes anywhere near the profit margin of opium. It will never go away until the entire area is a prosperous, modern civilized economy......and not even then.

Posted by AlanC 2017-08-10 12:20|| 2017-08-10 12:20|| Front Page Top

#7 We have successfully created a narco state.

Posted by DarthVader 2017-08-10 12:55|| 2017-08-10 12:55|| Front Page Top

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