In Afghanistan, U.S. Shifts Narcotics Strategy

[undeterred]

Source: The New York Times

By THOM SHANKER and ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: July 23, 2009

WASHINGTON — The American-led mission in Afghanistan is all but abandoning efforts to destroy poppy crops that provide the largest source of income to the insurgency, and instead will take dramatic steps to wean local farmers off the drug trade — including one proposal to pay them to grow nothing.

The strategy will shift from wiping out poppy crops, which senior officials acknowledged has only served to turn poor farmers into enemies of the central government in Kabul. New operations are already being mounted to attack not the crops, but the drug runners and drug lords aligned with the insurgency.

Ultimately, farmers must be persuaded to plant other crops, including wheat for domestic consumption and pomegranates and flowers for export, officials said. The Pentagon’s top civilian official for counter-insurgency strategy said Thursday that the specifics of the new antidrug effort still needed to be worked out, but that a decision had been reached on the new focus.

“We are reorienting our counternarcotics strategy rather significantly for Afghanistan to put much less emphasis on eradication and to shift the weight of our effort to interdiction,” said Michael G. Vickers, an assistant secretary of defense.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/world/asia/24poppy.html

[4lbs]

1. There was an MSNBC article a few weeks ago when the US Marines moved into the Helmut Province in

Afghanistan.

In it, it detailed the conversations that the US soldiers had with the Afghan locals in that area. They learned that the Taliban forced many of the growers to grow poppies, and then took nearly all the crops for themselves, leaving just enough for the farmers to live on. If farmers refused they were often beaten or killed by the Taliban.

So, many of the farmers in the province want to grow something else, like wheat for making bread, as long as its sustainable.

[undeterred]

2. I just hope we don't do something ridiculous

like pay them to grow nothing. People are starving.

[hollowdweller]

3. We need to legalize marijuana here and then buy the hash they make

Afghanistan= the root of the skunk bud.