Afghanistan was the former hiding place of Al-Queda, and they were the welcomed guests of the Taliban, who were controlling Afghanistan after having defeated the former Soviet Union. After 9/11, as we all know, our forces went into Afghanistan, and routed the Taliban with the help of Northern Alliance fighters. At least this is what we were told. Little seems to have changed for many in the region, as the Taliban still has it’s hands on the extremely lucrative drug trade that moves through that country. The poppies needed to produce heroin are still grown, and our forces do nothing to stop it. The reason is pragmatic, as the growing of the poppies represents the only real chance for farmers to make a living. If we deny these farmers this way of making a living, it will be a matter of days before they too turn against us.
This is not to say that most citizens want foreign forces to be in their country, just as we would not want a foreign power to occupy ours. But as long as we leave them to tending their poppy fields, they do not seem to be bothered too much by the coalition forces. We have tried paying them to not grow these poppies, and they eagerly accepted the money offered for their crops, and we burned a fair amount of these poppies. The only problem (O.K., maybe not the ONLY problem) was that they didn’t actually give us all of their poppies, and as the market price for heroin shot up, like stockbrokers, the farmers sold their remaining plants when the market hit a new high. Then they of course went back to cultivating this drug crop.
And even though we all know that some of the profits from heroin trafficking go directly into the coffers of the religious extremists that want to kill every Westerner they can find, there seems to be no easy solution. We cannot simply forbid the cultivation of these plants because many of the farmers will indeed starve, as Afghanistan is not exactly a country with a great deal of opportunity for all.
But there are other problems as well. An Afghan teacher was killed recently after having addressed a crowd of people. This teacher, Abdul Hadi, claimed that bombings and violence in the name of religion were wrong, and he was killed coming home from this conference. The Taliban is attacking schools, forcing many to close, and forcing the boys from these schools to join their Islamic militias. Arsonists attack schools where girls are allowed to attend, because Allah clearly does not want women to be educated. As to why Allah would want this, you would have to ask his rabid followers.
The vast majority of our forces in Afghanistan were pulled out to invade Iraq, and years ago we were told that Afghanistan was now out of the hands of the Taliban. We failed to capture or kill Osama, and this terrorist was able to escape. How is it that the Republican party can say that they are the ones to prosecute this war on terror, when they cannot seem to do a damn thing right? Aside from making huge profits on the war, of course.
