| Topic: |
Politics > Politics-USA |
| User: |
"Harry Hope" |
| Date: |
22 Mar 2006 08:32:10 PM |
| Object: |
In Afghan fields, the poppy grows |
From The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 3/21/06:
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/editorialcommentary/story/C903584260286CD1862571380001813B?OpenDocument
In Afghan fields, the poppy grows
The irony would be funny were it not so tragic:
In bringing democracy to Afghanistan, the United States has
inadvertently created boom times in the opium industry.
Free from threats from the former Taliban government and encouraged by
al-Qaida terrorists, Afghan farmers have enjoyed two straight record
opium poppy crops.
And unless a new U.S. eradication is successful, this year's crop
could be the best yet.
Talk about your law of unintended consequences.
Reporter Philip Dine of the Post-Dispatch reported this week from
Afghanistan's southern Helmand Province that 87 percent of the world's
opium is grown in Afghanistan.
Half of it is grown in that one province.
From the seed pod of the poppy oozes raw opium, which is scraped by
hand into balls of goo, then refined into morphine and then into
heroin.
Poppies thrive in the hot, dry mountain regions; as a cash crop, it's
worth many times more than anything else the farmers could grow.
Afghanistan has always been a major opium center, but the former
Taliban government, seeking legitimacy on the world stage even as it
harbored Osama bin Laden, had all but choked out the industry by 2001.
Then came the attacks of 9/11 followed by the U.S. military campaign
that replaced the Taliban with a nascent democracy.
But outside of the capital of Kabul and a few other major cities,
Afghanistan hasn't seen much change.
Tribal warlords still control the countryside.
They have formed alliances with drug lords and, in some cases, Taliban
fighters who see drugs as a weapon they can use against Western
infidels.
Mohammad Nabi Hussaini, director of the poppy eradication program for
the Afghan Ministry of Counter Narcotics, characterized the Taliban's
thinking like this:
"Western countries, they are sending us alcohol, they are sending us
rockets. This is our rocket -- poppy. This is how we can fight them."
__________________________________________________________
Coming to a neighborhood near you, Afghan heroin.
Harry
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| User: "Rev. 11D Meow!" |
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| Title: Re: In Afghan fields, the poppy grows |
22 Mar 2006 08:36:29 PM |
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Buy Who's Orders, Doofuss?
"Harry Hope" <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:a5242295jf7lgmhcna3n7nidfr3t2er8s6@4ax.com...
In Afghan fields, the poppy grows
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| User: "Jeff" |
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| Title: Re: In Afghan fields, the poppy grows |
22 Mar 2006 09:34:04 PM |
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Rev. 11D Meow! wrote:
Buy Who's Orders, Doofuss?
Is there something about your post that you think makes sense? Or having
you been shooting heroin, smoking opium or listening to Bill OReilly?
Jeff
"Harry Hope" <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:a5242295jf7lgmhcna3n7nidfr3t2er8s6@4ax.com...
In Afghan fields, the poppy grows
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| User: "Rev. 11D Meow!" |
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| Title: Re: In Afghan fields, the poppy grows |
23 Mar 2006 12:06:11 AM |
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mirror
"Jeff" <dont_bug_me@all.uk> wrote in message
news:MGoUf.9129$k75.1752@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net...
Rev. 11D Meow! wrote:
Buy Who's Orders, Doofuss?
Is there something about your post that you think makes sense? Or having
you been shooting heroin, smoking opium or listening to Bill OReilly?
Jeff
"Harry Hope" <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:a5242295jf7lgmhcna3n7nidfr3t2er8s6@4ax.com...
In Afghan fields, the poppy grows
.
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| User: "Jeff" |
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| Title: Re: In Afghan fields, the poppy grows |
23 Mar 2006 06:12:19 AM |
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Rev. 11D Meow! wrote:
mirror
Oh, you could have just said you were in Junior High!
Jeff
"Jeff" <dont_bug_me@all.uk> wrote in message
news:MGoUf.9129$k75.1752@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net...
Rev. 11D Meow! wrote:
Buy Who's Orders, Doofuss?
Is there something about your post that you think makes sense? Or having
you been shooting heroin, smoking opium or listening to Bill OReilly?
Jeff
"Harry Hope" <rivrvu@ix.netcom.com> wrote in message
news:a5242295jf7lgmhcna3n7nidfr3t2er8s6@4ax.com...
In Afghan fields, the poppy grows
.
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