NATO allows strikes on Afghan drug sites

[bemildred]

Source: IHT

BUDAPEST: Signaling a major shift in strategy for the trans-Atlantic alliance, NATO defense ministers agreed Friday to allow direct attacks on Afghanistan's drug networks.

The accord means that troops will be able to attack drug operations provided they obtain authorization from their own governments. NATO officials stressed that only drug producers aiding the insurgency would be targeted. The alliance actions will not be open-ended, lasting only until the Afghan security forces are able to take on the task themselves.

"NATO can act in concert with the Afghans against facilities and facilitators supporting the insurgency, subject to the authorization of respective nations," an alliance spokesman, James Appathurai, said after lengthy discussions Thursday and Friday among the ministers in the Hungarian capital.

President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has repeatedly asked NATO to take on more responsibility for dealing with the drug lords. It is unclear, however, if the alliance will need a new UN Security Council resolution. The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, operates under a UN mandate.

Read more: http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/10/asia/nato.php

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Some choice weasely language in this.

[awoke_in_2003]

1. "only drug producers aiding the insurgency would be targeted"

so does that mean that drug producers who aren't aiding the insurgency are ok?

[bemildred]

2. Apparently. Although there is little evidence that they know what they are bombing

when they bomb something, most of the time. I think it all so hedged about you can't really tell what it means.

[JohnyCanuck]

5. You betcha!

Britain is protecting the biggest heroin crop of all time
By CRAIG MURRAY (former British ambassador to Uzbekistan)

SNIP

Now we are occupying the country, that has changed. According to the United Nations, 2006 was the biggest opium harvest in history, smashing the previous record by 60 per cent. This year will be even bigger.

Our economic achievement in Afghanistan goes well beyond the simple production of raw opium. In fact Afghanistan no longer exports much raw opium at all. It has succeeded in what our international aid efforts urge every developing country to do. Afghanistan has gone into manufacturing and 'value-added' operations.

It now exports not opium, but heroin. Opium is converted into heroin on an industrial scale, not in kitchens but in factories. Millions of gallons of the chemicals needed for this process are shipped into Afghanistan by tanker. The tankers and bulk opium lorries on the way to the factories share the roads, improved by American aid, with Nato troops.

How can this have happened, and on this scale? The answer is simple. The four largest players in the heroin business are all senior members of the Afghan government ? the government that our soldiers are fighting and dying to protect.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-469983/Britain-protecting-biggest-heroin-crop-time.html

[IndianaGreen]

3. Another step that will lead to our inevitable defeat in Afghanistan

The opium trade and cultivation is the only livelihood for most farmers in Afghanistan. Way to go Westerners! You should be targeting the demand, not the supply.

[bemildred]

4. We are already defeated. This is all butt-covering. nt