Green | March 23, 2009 | 10 comments

US envoy: Afghanistan drug war a failure

source: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/US_envoy_Afghanistan_drug_war_failure_0322.html

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bansheewail
US and coalition efforts to eliminate the massive opium poppy trade in Afghanistan have failed under tremendous waste, according to Ambassador Richard Holbrooke.

"The United States alone is spending over 800 million dollars a year on counter-narcotics. We have gotten nothing out of it, nothing," Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said, at the Brussels Forum conference.

"It is the most wasteful and ineffective programme I have seen in 40 years in and out of the government," the new US representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan told an audience of senior world politicians and experts.

Despite an alleged 19 percent decrease in opium poppy production in 2008, Afghanistan remains the world's largest producer of the drug.

Efforts to destroy poppy crops "hasn't hurt the Taliban one iota because whatever money they're getting from the drug trade, they get whatever they need whether we reduce the acreage or not," he said. ... By forced eradication we've all been pushing farmers into Taliban hands."
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10 comments // US envoy: Afghanistan drug war a failure

  • WhiteNoise
  • sickinjersey
  • Scarabus
    • 0
      Scarabus  

    • It isn't hard. The problems, I suspect, are first that the U.S. doesn't control a lot of the places where poppies are growing and second that opium is so huge and integral a part of the nation's economy. (Understanding that Afghanistan is more a fiefdoms than a nation in the Western sense.) The government is totally corrupt, with a whole lot of bribery paid for with drug money.

    • 2 years ago
  • idealist
  • sickinjersey
  • Bren589
    • 0
      Bren589  

    • I have to agree , It is one big failure . They will never stop the poppy fields from growing no matter how much time and money is involved

    • 2 years ago
  • humanpasta
    • 0
      humanpasta  

    • The irony here is that Afgthanistan is the worlds largest producer of heroin and the United States is the worlds largest consumer. Americas black market is funding its opposition. If this country regulated sales of narcotics instead of banned it, there would be much more conrtol over where it came from. If American drug dealers didn't buy Afghani heroin, that would KILL taliban funding.....

    • 2 years ago
  • Scarabus
  • WhiteNoise
    • 0
      WhiteNoise  

    • ...BUT IS IT A FAILURE FOR THE DRUG TRAFFICKERS ?

      Remember them smack filled caskets returning from Vietnam ?
      Do you honestly think things are any different today ?

      1) http://www.ciadrugs.com/
      2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_drug_trafficking
      3) http://www.wethepeople.la/ciadrugs.htm

      Some might find this depressing, but isn't being terrorized into inaction by these thugs the real culprit ? Don't get me wrong here, I totally understand that we all have this pesky habit of wanting to stay alive & protect our family ;)

      "It is easier to find a score of men wise enough to discover the truth than to find one intrepid enough, in the face of opposition to stand up for it:" - A. A. Hodge

    • 2 years ago
  • bansheewail
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