US troops guarding the opium (FOX)

[BmanMcfly]

YouTube - US Army - "We Tolerate The Cultivation Of Opium Poppies"

I know that FOX news will probably be deemed conspiracy theorists for saying that... but according to Heraldo Rivera, the troops are protecting the poppy fields to prevent the taliban from taking back control of those areas....

BUT WAIT !!!

The US only invaded afghanistan after the taliban had banned the cultivation of opium... err.. I mean... 9-11 and OBL.

*sarcasm* So, do you agree that it's a good thing that the troops guard the poppies, or are you an anti-american taliban lover??
Really though, is this a good thing or bad thing?

What are the implications of this coming out?

Or are we supposed to pretend like someone near you passed gas in church, where you catch the smell but don't say a thing?

 

[BmanMcfly]

Ok, because of the lack of interest in this topic, I'm curious :

Is this a result of the attitude : it's just the way it is? or is it more something like 'That the debate had been settled long ago'?

Or, is it more something like 'good, we should be helping the farmers grow poppies to protest the taliban and help win the war'??

 

[1069]

YouTube - US Army - "We Tolerate The Cultivation Of Opium Poppies"

I know that FOX news will probably be deemed conspiracy theorists for saying that... but according to Heraldo Rivera, the troops are protecting the poppy fields to prevent the taliban from taking back control of those areas....

BUT WAIT !!!

The US only invaded afghanistan after the taliban had banned the cultivation of opium... err.. I mean... 9-11 and OBL.

*sarcasm* So, do you agree that it's a good thing that the troops guard the poppies, or are you an anti-american taliban lover??
Really though, is this a good thing or bad thing?

What are the implications of this coming out?

Or are we supposed to pretend like someone near you passed gas in church, where you catch the smell but don't say a thing?

I think, regrettably, we're going to see a rash of soldiers returning with drug problems.
But that happened in Vietnam, too.

 

[hazlnut]

YouTube - US Army - "We Tolerate The Cultivation Of Opium Poppies"

I know that FOX news will probably be deemed conspiracy theorists for saying that... but according to Heraldo Rivera, the troops are protecting the poppy fields to prevent the taliban from taking back control of those areas....

BUT WAIT !!!

The US only invaded afghanistan after the taliban had banned the cultivation of opium... err.. I mean... 9-11 and OBL.

*sarcasm* So, do you agree that it's a good thing that the troops guard the poppies, or are you an anti-american taliban lover??
Really though, is this a good thing or bad thing?

What are the implications of this coming out?

Or are we supposed to pretend like someone near you passed gas in church, where you catch the smell but don't say a thing?

I agree, it's a bad thing, and we shouldn't be involved with the drug trade... But let's see where the story goes.

 

[BmanMcfly]

I agree, it's a bad thing, and we shouldn't be involved with the drug trade... But let's see where the story goes.

I must point out the hypicrosy in all of this... troops are out there guarding the opium, so they form / protect a drug cartel in the region, where the production of the drug is continuously on the rise. Meanwhile, once they are shipped here, and you are dumb enough to jab a needle up your arm, you get swat teamed and thrown in jail. Profit on both ends... and then you get someone stamping liscence plates for 'good behavior' points

Otherwise, this post I'd say about 6 months ago would have been labelled 'conspiracy theory' on it's face... so, I think this story was being exposed that's much like you would pass gas in church... you just kinda let it out easy and hope noone notices. I gotta repeat that sentiment because really, nobody somes to care when they were violently opposed when confronted with the prospect not all that long ago.

 

[Orion]

The opium fields of Afghanistan are a medicinal resource. The pharmaceutical industry in western nations would never want our military to destroy it.

 

[Areopagitican]

You've never heard of oxycot, have you?

BigPharma, bless their souls, has been making synthetic heroin for years now. They don't need, nor really want, the natural stuff.

 

[Wiseone]

The troops may not have the capacity at the time to properly remove the poppy without destroying the growing potential of the field they are growing on. They are however probably not allowing it to be sold but are paying the farmer for that loss in profit. This keeps the farmer a little happier as he probably doesnt fully trust the Americans to keep paying him, but at least he can think if they leave at least the crop is still there. But if we torch it, again we may destroy the soil, and he may not have something to replant and he has to watch, along with the rest of the village, the US troops burning his crops down.

I dont know all the dynamics of the situation but Im sure there's a good reason, even if thats just "its not our primary objective to destroy poppy right now"

 

[d0gbreath]

Poppycock! (not being British, I've always wanted to say that). If we are making sure that the harvests go to market, then we are the muscle for the drug cartel. It's a war on drugs only when we say so dammit!

 

[Aunt Spiker]

Unless it's, also, illegal there (which it doesn't seem to be) then we should have no say what so ever about what they grow. If they need us to protect it so it stays in the hands of the goodies rather than falling into the hands of the baddies then so be it.

We're suppose to be there to help these people get their **** back together - no parent them.

 

[Muddy Creek]

You are citing FOX news...we don't even know if this is true or not. Any other sources back this up?

 

[BmanMcfly]

Unless it's, also, illegal there (which it doesn't seem to be) then we should have no say what so ever about what they grow. If they need us to protect it so it stays in the hands of the goodies rather than falling into the hands of the baddies then so be it.

I'm pretty sure the only time it was made illegal was when the Taliban had banned the cultivation of opium in early 2001, they had eliminated something like 95% of poppy fields, and as can be verified by the graph (though more recent ones show that 2005-2008 were increasing volumes yearly) as SOON AS the US came in the fields went back to heroin production (why make food when drug money can pay for the food you need)... I don't have the source on specifically why the taliban banished poppy production, but if memory serves it was something to do with the idea that poppy cultivation was somehow denigrating their society.

We're suppose to be there to help these people get their **** back together - no parent them.

It seems that as time goes on, that this was just the reason the people were sold on keeping troops in Afghanistan.

You are citing FOX news...we don't even know if this is true or not. Any other sources back this up?

Well... these will go back to the time when BBC was a 'conspiracy theory', but yes I have several sources.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/world/asia/28intel.html?_r=2

KABUL, Afghanistan — Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/world/asia/05afghan.html

Before long, the commander, Habibullah Jan, received a telephone call from Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of President Hamid Karzai, asking him to release the vehicle and the drugs, Mr. Jan later told American investigators, according to notes from the debriefing obtained by The New York Times. He said he complied after getting a phone call from an aide to President Karzai directing him to release the truck.

Russia gives U.S. Afghan drugs data, criticizes NATO | Reuters

NATO spokesman James Appathurai said at the time that it was impossible to remove the only source of income for Afghan farmers without being able to provide them with an alternative.

Is this enough??