Article

2011-12-02 Fifth Column

US military admits to assisting lucrative Afghan opium trade

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Posted by gorb 2011-12-02 01:02|| || Front Page|| [11126 views ] Top

#1 Well, the author has a few problems with facts. On the other hand, poppy fields cannot exactly be hidden. So given US military presence in the land, it's hard to believe that opium growing can continue---unless it's allowed to continue.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2011-12-02 01:56|| 2011-12-02 01:56|| Front Page Top

#2 g(r)omgoru, poppy is also grown illegally in America, police seem to have limited success in stopping it.

Posted by BernardZ 2011-12-02 05:50|| 2011-12-02 05:50|| Front Page Top

#3 Maryjane, maybe.

Posted by g(r)omgoru 2011-12-02 09:39|| 2011-12-02 09:39|| Front Page Top

#4 Let's not make a habit of posting stuff from them.

Know thy enemy ....

If you don't know what they're talking about, you won't know how they think or how to persuade them. This certainly comes out of left field and gives you a window into how they think.

Posted by gorb 2011-12-02 10:07|| 2011-12-02 10:07|| Front Page Top

#5 gorb, if we go there Fred's servers will crash from the weight of the daily stupidity.

Posted by lotp 2011-12-02 10:27|| 2011-12-02 10:27|| Front Page Top

#6 The War on Drugs has often resulted in uncomfortable paradoxical situations, because it is in conflict with powerful market forces that are far stronger than any anti-drug resolve or funding.

An excellent example was of the meeting between Vietnam war hero LTC (ret.) James Gordon "Bo" Gritz, and later, by Australian journalist Stephen Rice, with General Khun Sa, who ruled a large enclave in Burma.

Khun Sa was called the "opium king", because his enclave produced something like 1/3rd of the world's opium crop. But Khun Sa personally hated opium, and repeatedly offered both the governments of Australia and the US to change the economy of his enclave to conventional agriculture.

His argument was that the street value of the opium his enclave produced was about $600 billion a year, but if either nation would send farm equipment, pesticide, fertilizer, and most importantly agricultural advisers and consultants, to the tune of about $50 million, his enclave would convert to conventional agriculture and eliminate opium production entirely.

He was adamant that such advisers and consultants *had* to be part of the deal, for many years, to verify that all opium production had ceased beyond any doubt.

But the governments of both Australia and the US vehemently rejected his request, the former saying, The Australian Government is simply not in the business of paying criminals to refrain from criminal activity.

The Americans went a step further, threatening the government of Burma with a complete cut off of American aid, unless they invaded the enclave and killed Khun Sa.

Shortly thereafter, the newspapers in Burma's capital were filled with stories of the Burmese armies conquest of the enclave, a wonderful fabrication, because if anything, the Burmese government fully supported Khun Sa's activities. But the Burmese government correctly figured that the US diplomatic mission was so lazy that they would never actually bother to witness the "war" in person. So newspaper stories were enough.

LTC Gritz, however, apprehensive of the faux "war" in the papers, then gingerly returned to the enclave, to find it not just untouched, but considerably improved from its former state, with a new highway, so that Burmese army trucks could more efficiently haul their opium cargo for export.

As an epilogue, after considerable investigation, LTC Gritz concluded that, in an effort to prevent a worldwide drug war, civil wars in dozens of countries, the US had decided, since the very start of the WoD by Nixon, to essentially take over the world's drug trade, managing it to market forces, while to a great extent keeping the money and weapons involved out of the hands of revolutionary movements.

Since that time, tragically, LTC Gritz has somewhat "lost it", and become a radical right wing personality, though still loyal to the US.

We have always been at war with Eastasia.

Posted by Anonymoose 2011-12-02 11:02|| 2011-12-02 11:02|| Front Page Top

#7 It does seem kinda funny that this WoD has been ongoing since the days of Tricky Dick and yet there is no shortage of drugs on the street.

Sounds a lot like the war on poverty.

Posted by Ebbang Uluque6305 2011-12-02 14:23|| 2011-12-02 14:23|| Front Page Top

#8 gorb, if we go there Fred's servers will crash from the weight of the daily stupidity.

Maybe I should have put this under "Fifth Column" or something. :-)

Posted by gorb 2011-12-02 14:24|| 2011-12-02 14:24|| Front Page Top

#9 This problem of 'blowback' from the War on Drugs is so similar to the blowback from the decades long situation of the US protecting Lovers of Jihad Pumping Oil with our troops, that it makes my skin crawl.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-12-02 14:32|| 2011-12-02 14:32|| Front Page Top

#10 The area around Culiacan, Mexico remains the main source of heroin that is sold in the US. You hear about the cartels being based in Guadelajara, but that is only where the bosses live. Afghanistan produces 90% of the global market but much goes to Iran (2,000,000 addicts) and Pakistan (4,000,000 addicts). Euros get most of the rest.

Posted by Clem Unort1053 2011-12-02 19:36|| 2011-12-02 19:36|| Front Page Top

#11 And Russia.

Posted by gorb 2011-12-02 19:41|| 2011-12-02 19:41|| Front Page Top

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