The Astounding Success In Afghanistan
More good news in the astounding success that is Afghanistan. Of course, this isn't exactly new news, since Karzai has been saying for months how bad the situation is. The battle against institutionalised poppy farming has been on-going for some time - the situation was somewhat more under control when the Taliban were in power, but a number of ham-fisted efforts by the US and the UK managed to escalate the problem.
The most ludicrous of these was the 'compensatory eradication' program that paid farmers to destroy their poppy - of course, this meant that local warlords would pay people a smaller amount to pose as farmers so that they could claim the payouts. The warlords collected the lion's share of the proceeds whilst the real farmers continued to grow poppy seeds.
Even if the full proceeds were going to the farmers, the $1,250 per hectare being offered is still far below what an opium farmer can actually earn (around $16,000 per hectare).
I'm in no way arguing that Afghanistan would be better if we just left the Taliban in place (as things stand, they're already making inroads back into power)... but Afghanistan is almost always passed off as a success story, a shining example of benign military intervention. The truth is somewhat bleaker.
In other news, the Doctors Without Borders organisation have withdrawn from Afghanistan because of danger to their staff.
The Afghanistan situation gets worse and worse every day - and as with the increased poppy production, this has a direct effect on our own way of life. Money from the heroin trade is being used to fund the Taliban resurgence, and likely funding Al Qaeda cells throughout the world. The propaganda machine in the West is right about one thing though - Afghanistan is most certainly a shining example of something.
The most ludicrous of these was the 'compensatory eradication' program that paid farmers to destroy their poppy - of course, this meant that local warlords would pay people a smaller amount to pose as farmers so that they could claim the payouts. The warlords collected the lion's share of the proceeds whilst the real farmers continued to grow poppy seeds.
Even if the full proceeds were going to the farmers, the $1,250 per hectare being offered is still far below what an opium farmer can actually earn (around $16,000 per hectare).
I'm in no way arguing that Afghanistan would be better if we just left the Taliban in place (as things stand, they're already making inroads back into power)... but Afghanistan is almost always passed off as a success story, a shining example of benign military intervention. The truth is somewhat bleaker.
In other news, the Doctors Without Borders organisation have withdrawn from Afghanistan because of danger to their staff.
The Afghanistan situation gets worse and worse every day - and as with the increased poppy production, this has a direct effect on our own way of life. Money from the heroin trade is being used to fund the Taliban resurgence, and likely funding Al Qaeda cells throughout the world. The propaganda machine in the West is right about one thing though - Afghanistan is most certainly a shining example of something.
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