Afghanistan, The Forgotten War
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Foreign Policy, The War On TerrorismIt is not unexpected, but it certainly is disheartening that we’ve abandoned the Afghani people so thoroughly.
From Lieutenant General David Richards comes a dose of needed reality:
The most senior British military commander in Afghanistan today described the situation in the country as “close to anarchy” with feuding foreign agencies and unethical private security companies compounding problems caused by local corruption.The stark warning came from Lieutenant General David Richards, head of Nato’s international security force in Afghanistan, who warned that western forces there were short of equipment and were “running out of time” if they were going to meet the expectations of the Afghan people.
The assumption within Nato countries had been that the environment in Afghanistan after the defeat of the Taliban in 2002 would be benign, Gen Richards said. “That is clearly not the case,” he said today. He referred to disputes between tribes crossing the border with Pakistan, and divisions between religious and secular factions cynically manipulated by “anarcho-warlords”.
Apparently, we’re in a bit of a tough spot. We need to rebuild the infrastructure so Afghanistan can catch up to the rest of the world. But in the mean time, we have to shift focus from eradicating the poppy production in the country. And just for some background, that’s pretty much the only thing Afghanistan has going for it as far as a cash crop is concerned. In fact, it’s said that of their roughly $30 billion GDP, up to a third of it comes from illicit drugs.
So it seems what we have here is a Catch-22. If you destroy the poppy crops, you destroy one of the only means for the Afghani people to make a living and you lose their hearts and minds. But those same crops are funding the warlords. What to do?
This entry was posted on Saturday, July 22nd, 2006 and is filed under Foreign Policy, The War On Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
July 23rd, 2006 at 1:19 pm
Well, how about this for a real crazy idea -
All production subsidies, export incentives, import restrictions used by the US, Canadian, Australian, and European governments to support their wheat growers get removed not in twenty years, or twelve years, or next year but NOW.
Then, perhaps, Afghani farmers could sell wheat on the international market at about 1/3 the price that applies at present.
Of course, there would be some mighty angry and upset voters in those countries, huh!.
July 24th, 2006 at 12:31 am
Another option since they don’t seem to be adverse to growing addictive substances that harm people is Tobacco. At least its legal.
July 24th, 2006 at 9:57 am
Have you ever thought of taking a broader view of the war in Afghanistan. It was originally waged to bring down the Taliban because of the terrorism at the Trade Center. Have you ever considered that it might have been waged as a way to bring the poppy crop back on line? The Taliban had limited the growth of poppies, but by bringing them down, the world drug cartels could now bring production back up. As for a pipeline to transport it, why not use the resources of companies contracted to do business for the military in Afghanistan. Whose shipments in and out would be the least likely to be checked? Weapons for the warlords in, heroin out…………now who is going to check the very contractors who provide all the services needed to run a war. As long as you keep a war going , the contractors remain. But by starting another war and diverting resources, there are not enough resources left to keep the warlords from reassuming control, and the flow of heroin returns at record levels…..
Next question, how high and who might be involved? I’ll leave that one for you to mull on……..