US & Afghan Forces Are the World’s Largest Drug Cartel -- What Our Children Are Dying For

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I’ll just get right to the point. The US Military and the Afghan Military are conducting a joint operation and are planning a major offensive in a small town. They say some Taliban members are holding out in the area and plan to engage in a serious firefight. The Afghan Military dropped some leaflets in the region to warn civilians to take cover.

Then, about half-way through the article, CNN mentions (in one small paragraph) that the region has some of the most fertile soil around and grows poppies with ease. They warn that opium sales from the poppies fund the Taliban and that to eradicate the Taliban, we should kill them all and take control of their poppy fields.

But time after time, we see articles and reports of NATO troops, Afghan troops and even American troops guarding opium plants, poppy fields and chatting it up with those working the fields. In my opinion, this is yet another attempt to seize a major narcotics operation and gain control of moreopium . This is one massive, multi-national drug cartel fighting the native drug cartel for territory and product. This exact scenario is played out a dozen times a week in South America and Mexico, except there, the cartels don’t drop leaflets announcing their attack. That is the ONLY difference. Well, that and Predator Drones aren’t used.

www.truthistreason.net...

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www.cnn.com...

This, and the oil pipeline, is what the occupation in Afghanistan and Iraq are all about...

reply to post by rainfall


I guess that explains why our soldiers are still chasing the ghost of Bin Laden in Afganistan when the Al Queda numbers are supposed to be in the double digits.

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If the US and NATO TRULY wanted to rid the Taliban of their supposed revenue source (other than DoD funding) – which is opium – then after rooting out the few Taliban that remain, they would firebomb the fields and then salt the region. They would call upon Monsanto or DuPont to design a chemical similar to Round-Up to saturate the soil with. Although I am a strong opponent of GMOs and chemicals, could they not design one that would kill poppy seeds without effecting other agriculture? Sure they could (regular Monsanto arguments need not apply at the moment, I’m well aware of them) !

Of all the technology that flourishes in the world – stopping opium growth and sales is a very easy task, especially during a “war” when normal regulations, grievances, etc are not heeded. Thus, I can only conclude that the military does not want the poppy fields to stop producing. Why is that? Hmmmm.

www.truthistreason.net...

I see I'm getting some flags but nobody is replying..?.

Any thoughts..?...

Where's all my pro-military buddies at now...

EDIT: FortAnthem, I did not mean to call you nobody...

[edit on 14-2-2010 by rainfall]

The CIA can't handle the competition so they called out the big dogs. THat way they can keep supplies low and prices high. Supply and demand, the Uhmerakhan way.
As an aside, the opium wars with the western powers have been going on for 150 years now. China still wants their piece of the action.

We supported the Taliban for years during the Russian troubles and gladly partook of the drug largess. Then they cut off the pipeline, prices went up and they became our enemy. Funny about that word "pipeline". Get a quote from a US company for an oil pipeline and then go with a German firm. Another check in the enemy column.

But the deals have been made.

We will be withdrawing from Afghanistan in Peace & Honor. The Taliban will be part of the Afghan government, the drugs & oil will flow, we will pay big reparations and will have defeated the terrorist threat!

Wait, WTF! Oh, I forgot, business as usual & the US sheeple sleep safe & sound.
I figure there are2 Al Queda groups. The one that pull off incredible operations are someone else. The ones that die are those poor Islamics that we want dead and bodies to point at saying "they did it & we killed them".

I had interresting meeting and talk few months ago with general who is top places in international operations, and act as chief in finnish international staff, served also in Afghanistan two years.

He confirmed several times in our private talks that in Afghanistan, everything is just because of drugs, and huge drug business - adding that its a shame that our country is involved in operations, and Finland should come fast away from that country.

He let me understand clearly, that drug business is run by coalition forces and real reasons for war is well known amongst top officers.

Wars,wars,wars....

Afganistan= For Drug and for Natural Gas silkroad...
Iraq= Purely for oil
Possible Iran= For oil and for the new silkroad of oil and gas and drugs...

Dominate the world before your opponents do(Russia, China...etc.)

[edit on 15-2-2010 by MoonandStar]

[edit on 15-2-2010 by MoonandStar]

You know, I've often wondered, "why don't they just wipe those poppy fields out?" myself. So, prompted by the article in the OP I did a little research to see what I could find.

It looks like back in 04, Bush wanted to and made an attempt to do it, but it didn't work out.

Outcry against poisoning Afghanistan poppies

WASHINGTON — In 2004, U.S.-contracted aircraft secretly sprayed harmless plastic granules over poppy fields in Afghanistan to gauge public reaction to using herbicides to kill the opium poppies that help fund the Taliban and al-Qaida.

The mysterious granules ignited a major outcry from poor farmers, tribal chiefs and government officials up to President Hamid Karzai, who demanded to know if the spraying was part of a poppy-eradication program.

Opponents fear that spraying would trigger a backlash against Karzai, who's already politically weak, said U.S. and European officials, and deliver a propaganda bonanza to the Taliban. At the same time, a great percentage of the proceeds of opium-poppy farming, if unchecked, will go to the Taliban.

The officials who confirmed details of the 2004 spraying for the first time made no secret of their opposition to the program that's being contemplated.
........
"It was a dry run," a senior State Department official said. "People freaked out."

"The results of those inert tests were: 'Don't do this, don't do this,' " recalled another senior U.S. official. "Every goat with a bad ear and every [legitimate] crop that doesn't grow will be blamed" on the spraying.

Ok, so they claim that didn't work out.. so what's next?

U.S. Seeds New Crops to Supplant Afghan Poppies

QALAI BOST VILLAGE, Afghanistan -- The Obama administration is overhauling its strategy for eliminating Afghanistan's flourishing drug trade, a key source of funds for the Taliban. Its plan hinges on persuading farmers like Mohammed Walid to grow something other than poppies.

They are doing this through grants and help to the farmers to help them make the switch from poppies to other crops. Spending in 09 ($300 mil) on this was 6 times what it was in 08. Still it isn't without its problems.

"We're trying to give the farmers alternatives so they can move away from the poppy culture without suffering massive unemployment and poverty," says Rory Donohoe, the U.S. Agency for International Development official leading the drive. "The idea is to make it easier for farmers to make the right choice."

Still, building a viable alternative to Afghanistan's opium economy will be challenging. Corn and wheat can be less profitable than opium. Taliban fighters, who are closely allied with the traffickers, have threatened farmers who drop poppies for other crops. When U.S. officials opened a new distribution center for the seed program last year, Taliban militants promptly rocketed it.

Still, it is claimed, that sometimes 1/2 the crop is destroyed and 1/2 left because of the people not having another income stream

Bitter-Sweet Harvest: Afghanistan's New War

Kaka Razaq was astounded when soldiers surrounded his scarlet poppy fields in the Dand district of the province of Kandahar, southern Afghanistan. He rapidly turned pale as he witnessed the armed men hauling out the lucrative crop he had been raising so diligently over recent months. "For God's sake please, this is all I have to feed my family," the 56-year-old farmer pleaded.

Razaq's opium fields were the first to be targeted in Kabul's southern poppy eradication drive that began in the province in early April.

Kandahar is one of the major poppy-growing provinces in a country that continues to produce the majority of the world's illicit heroin. But although people like Razaq were very unhappy that their fields were being destroyed, things could have been worse. With elections looming and the government's authority weak outside the capital, the eradication programme is not designed to remove all the offending crop - such a move would be grossly unpopular in a nation that earns billions from the drug. "This is my order, destroy half and leave the remaining half untouched," Kandahar governor Mohammad Yousuf Pashtun reminded his men.

To me at least, this line of reasoning does make some sense. Consider this, you have a farmer, he is poor and he grows crop X to feed himself and his family. He doesn't really like you, but he doesn't make any moves against you either. He grows crop X because it grows well and produces the best income. You swoop in and destroy his field crop X. Unless you give him compensation and another means of making a living - you have just made an enemy because you've taken away his way of feeding his family.

Still, not everyone is on board with the this. Britain is going ahead with destruction of fields and Russia urges wiping out the fields to help stop their heroin problem.

Britain to continue poppy eradication in Afghanistan despite US reversal

The British Government said destroying poppy fields remained a key deterrent to growers and one of the "seven pillars" of its anti-opium strategy in Helmand province, just a day after Richard Holbrooke, the US envoy to Afghanistan, said that destroying the crop only drove poor farmers to join the insurgency.

In a reversal of policy, he said the United States would stop funding poppy eradication and instead concentrate on encouraging farmers to grow alternative crops.

Russia urges U.S. to destroy Afghan opium crop

MOSCOW - Russia is pressing the White House to resurrect the Bush-era policy of large-scale eradication of poppy fields in Afghanistan, an effort that critics say angered Afghan farmers and rallied support for the Taliban but did little to curb the cultivation of opium.

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The "Frogs that is TDLTR read version" - abridged version is below.

I'm NOT saying the US has no involvement in the huge profits to be made from the drug trade. They very well may and it honestly wouldn't surprise me.

I AM saying that getting rid of all those fields of poppies is a twisted and complex problem and there does not appear to be a quick solution to it. Destroying the fields without providing an alternative means of making a living may only increase tensions.