WAR: Karzai Declares Holy War on Afghan Narcotics, page 1

Calling for a holy war against the narcotic trade, newly sworn in Afghan President Hamid Karzai made an impassioned speech asking for the worlds help. He also indicated that the Taliban may be using drug profits to pay for their continued insurgency. Calling the specter of becoming a narcotic nation state, Karzi called the drug trade a bigger threat to his country than the Soviet invasion. According to the U.N. Afghanistan accounted for more that 87 percent of the world�s opium production.

story.news.yahoo.com
KABUL, Afghanistan - President Hamid Karzai declared a "holy war" on Afghanistan's runaway narcotics industry Thursday, calling for international aid to counter a threat he said was more dangerous than any faced by his country in more than 20 years of war.

Two days after being sworn in as the impoverished country's first elected president, Karzai opened a conference on U.S.-sponsored plans to crack down on a trade already supplying most of the world's heroin and which risks turning Afghanistan into a narco-state.

In an impassioned speech, Karzai also suggested Taliban militants were funding their insurgency with drug profits and warned elders and officials from across the country to stop groups of smugglers from poisoning its development.

"Opium cultivation, heroin production is more dangerous than the invasion and the attack of the Soviets on our country, it is more dangerous than the factional fighting in Afghanistan, it is more dangerous than terrorism," Karzai said. "Just as our people fought a holy war against the Soviets, so we will wage jihad against poppies."

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No doubt, if they do not get a handle on this soon, Afghanistan runs the risk of becoming Columbia during the Pablo Escobar heyday. About the only think that you can say about the Taliban that is nice is that they did keep a lid on the production of opium. However, if the reports are true, and they are using the profits to fund their terrorism, then all the more reason to eradicate it.