NATO Set to Begin Drug War in Afghanistan.

[bigtree]

I've got a bad feeling about this . . .


MUNICH (AP) — In an effort to strike at a key income source for Taliban militants, the top NATO commander said Sunday that operations to attack drug lords and labs in Afghanistan will begin within the "next several days."

Gen. John Craddock, who also heads the U.S. European Command, also said that the U.S. and its allies are making progress in their efforts to fill the need for more troops, equipment and intelligence gathering in Afghanistan. He, however, would not disclose any specific commitments he got this weekend as world leaders met at a security conference here.

NATO defense ministers, during a meeting last fall in Hungary, authorized troops in Afghanistan to launch the drug attacks, but there had been questions about whether allies would be willing to follow through. Money from Afghanistan's booming illicit drug trade has been blamed for pumping up to $100 million a year into the coffers of resurgent Taliban fighters.

"Activities and actions will occur soon that will be helpful," Craddock told reporters. "We've got to get started."

read: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gVXI7N6EjTNLgyJVgIO2ypSEO5gwD967C9500

Did the American people really sign on to a war against Afghanistan's drug lords? That actually seems even more ludicrous than expecting to 'defeat' the Taliban. Are we really prepared to sacrifice soldiers for this dubious aggression? The Afghanistan occupation is set to become a war on drug lords? Really? Where did the American people authorize the use of military force for drug eradication in Afghanistan?

I think this is madness and a sure invitation to a wider conflict - as if we actually needed more military aggression right now.

related:

NATO High Commander Issues 'Illegitimate' Order to Kill Afghan Drug Dealers
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,604183,00.html

NATO Chief Launches Probe Into Leaked Afghan Document
http://www.easybourse.com/bourse-actualite/marches/update-nato-chief-launches-probe-into-leaked-afghan-document-606525

Afghan Opium Poppy Production Expected to Fall
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-02-01-voa18.cfm

[ixion]

1. F'king 'drug wars'

Can we stop that lunacy? All it does is cause trouble. It solves nothing. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

[bigtree]

2. It'll just be bloodletting and nothing more

. . . unless there's a serious replacement solution to the income poppy growers get from their crops.

[shadowknows69]

3. Alternate headline: CIA to continue drug profiteering in Afghanistan.

[bigtree]

5. you got it

Pakistani investigative journalist Ahmed Rashid described a pattern when the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan began in 2001 . . .

"The Pentagon had a list of twenty-five or more drug labs and warehouses in Afghanistan but refused to bomb them because some belonged to the CIA's new NA Northern Alliance allies. The United States told its British allies that the war on terrorism had nothing to do with counter-narcotics. Instead, drug lords were fêted by the CIA and asked if they had any information about Osama bin Laden. Thus, the United States sent the first and clearest message to the drug lords: that they would not be targeted."

(Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia, New York: Viking, 2008, pp. 320-321)

[shadowknows69]

7. Meanwhile back here we're fed a boatload of bullshit about stopping the poppy trade

[madokie]

8. I believe that there is way more to what you said than even we could imagine

new sheriff in town and along with that a drop in revenues for the cia so what do they do. Push drugs as they have any other time we've had competent help in the oval office. The availability of Afghani smoke both the buds and the hashish will become more readily available on our streets here in a very short time. I seen it with drugs from south america early on in the Reagan/bush1 tenure. When Carter was in the whitehouse we would go for months sometimes without finding any weed to smoke but as soon as the gipper strolled into the oval office all drugs were readily available. In fact cocaine and crack which we had hardly seen or heard of were all of a sudden on every street corner. The cia and fbi need to be abolished. :hi:

[shadowknows69]

9. Yeah, I don't suspect we'll see video of huge poppy fields burning

Under watch of our troops. I suspect the drugs will "disappear" onto our streets anyway. Just different pushers getting paid for it.

[Chemical Bill]

4. It isn't really a drug war.

The CIA probably wants to eliminate all the drug production that we get no profit from. After all, the opium production skyrocketed after we first invaded and put "our" warlords in power. We can't have any Taliban sympathizers cutting in on our profits.

Bill

[lunatica]

6. Another endless unwinnable war.

Don't these countries get it that what makes drug dealers and suppliers rich is the demand for these drugs by their own citizens? Talk about a closed loop of endless sanity. Your government using literally billions of your tax dollars to fight a war on expensive drugs that you buy for yourself. Why not just throw your money away without the middleman and each citizen can deal with their drug supplier of choice?

Like banks getting free money from us to then turn around and charge us interest if they loan it back to us. Another closed loop of endless insanity. So it's a good thing if I hand my paycheck over to my neighbor because he was too stupid to keep out of debt and it's then OK if he loans some of it back to me but I have to pay an interest rate to him? That means I pay back the loan plus interest on my money which I gave him for free. What a sweet deal for my neighbor!

Who's the idiot here?

[bigtree]

10. I think NATO is just looking for relevance in the region

They have to know that their meager forces won't make as much as a dent in the drug trade. What they're ignoring is the escalating effects of their aggression. That's why this effort needs to have a component which is more than tangential to the original mission in Afghanistan, which was the pursuit of those the government determined responsible for the 9-11 attacks. That's what the military forces were authorized for. All of the talk about 'stabilizing' Afghanistan is undermined by this new focus on elements in Afghanistan who had nothing at all to do with those attacks on America. Strategy for endless conflict.