I'm dubious about getting involved in another drug war.

The key to "winning" (or more accurately having the warlords pretend that you're in charge) is to turn a blind eye to opium growing.

U.S. policy was to not allow price supports for wheat, when if they had maybe more farmers would have kept growing it.  Also, the World Food Program dumpped foreign (including U.S.) wheat onto the market, further depressing the price.  Why not buy Afghan wheat for distribution.  One of the problems for farmers is the cost of transporting their wheat, had the WFP paid for the transportation it would have greatly helped the farmers.

Poppy eradication drives up the price for what remains and is good for the poppy traders.  Eradication only hurts poor farmers and never impacts on the availability of poppy.  Eradication at most might cut 20% off a bumper crop.  BTW, the U.S. paid drug merchants (warlords and other government appointees) to destroy crops.  Do you think they destroyed their own crops, or those of their buddies.  No, they destroyed the crops of poor farmers who had no political say in the process.  We waste millions of dollars on failed policies, that go to support the people we wish to defeat.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2008/07/23/obama/print.html

Obama is saying the wrong things about Afghanistan.

He hit the right notes during his swing through Iraq, but his plans for that other war could mean trouble.

By Juan Cole

Jul. 23, 2008 | Barack Obama's Afghanistan and Iraq policies are mirror images of each other. Obama wants to send 10,000 extra U.S. troops to Afghanistan, but wants to withdraw all American soldiers and Marines from Iraq on a short timetable. In contrast to the kid gloves with which he treated the Iraqi government, Obama repeated his threat to hit at al-Qaida in neighboring Pakistan unilaterally, drawing howls of outrage from Islamabad.

But Obama's pledge to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan will not be easy to fulfill. While coalition troop deaths have declined significantly in Iraq, NATO casualties in Afghanistan are way up. By shifting emphasis from Iraq to Afghanistan, would a President Obama be jumping from the frying pan into the fire?

Obviously, Karzai is more than the mayor of Kabul if he can de-rail & defeat the opium eradication plans of Schweich & his drug-fighting bureaucrats from Washington DC.  Clearly, Pres. Karzai can control Helmand & Kandahar provinces, so perhaps he can manage a few other areas also . . . ?  And to imply that illiterate Afghan farmers are somehow making geo-political & strategic decisions about crop selection is hysterical.

It appears as if Schweich is a Bu$hInc anti-drug bureaucrat, with some "ambassadorial," status who is in a turf war with the Pentagon over budget & resources.  His dismissive & dis-respectful statements about Pres. Hamid Karzai seem quite extraordinary.  It is unlikely that published accusations would be made without high-level approval.

Schweich's comments on NATO Commanders, specific allies, the US commanding general(s), & the Karzai government seem to indicate that he has no fear of reprisals within the administration--or he sees his career ending in 4 months anyway.

Even so, his eradication plan is doomed.  His need for helicopters will go unmet.  And his diatribe will result in less funding as the people he has insulted will work against his plans within the congressional committees.

Explain something to me. Afghanistan is the only drug producing country that we have direct military control over. Why has opium production exploded over there? Isn't the opium that is grown there like a dagger aimed at the heart and soul of American youth?

U.S. policy was to not allow price supports for wheat,

the bottom line here is that the current administration hasn't got a clue what to do about afghanistan. they never planned beyond getting rid of the taliban, just as they never planned beyond deposing saddam in iraq.

in case you haven't noticed, republicans, as a group, don't tend to dwell much on the long-term. like their corporate supporters, their main concern is what's the next quarter's earnings per share and dividend?

bush and his cronies have taken a pretty decent situation, inherited from clinton, and damn near destroyed the country and the military.

they've tried every bad "conservative" economic approach, and proved, beyond any reasonable or unreasonable doubt, that they are the most incompetent bunch to ever darken the hallways of washington.

Have you seen those old movies where the Feds burst into a warehouse and start shooting with machine guns, slaughtering the guys who are brewing beer?

The Afghan resistance/Northern Alliance has all but disappeared until the Taliban took a hard line on poppy cultivation.  

I thought Iraq was a cluster**, what with the whole Sunni/Shia thing... but when/if a Taliban/opium grower alliance forms, we're looking at a rerun of the USSR's experience in Afghanistan.

• Massive spraying of crops.
• No payments to farmers.
• Militarizing the anti-poppy effort.