Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by Blackmoore on Thursday October 23 2014, @08:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the your-taxes-at-work dept.

Common Dreams reports:

In a letter to [US officials], Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John F. Sopko writes: "Despite spending over $7 billion to combat opium poppy cultivation and to develop the Afghan government's counternarcotics capacity, opium poppy cultivation levels in Afghanistan hit an all-time high in 2013."

"As of June 30, 2014, the United States has spent approximately $7.6 billion on counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan," the letter states.

"Despite the significant financial expenditure, opium poppy cultivation has far exceeded previous records," he writes, adding that this "calls into question the long-term effectiveness and sustainability of those prior efforts."

[...] A Defense Department response to the SIGAR findings, which is included in the report, states, in part: "In our opinion, the failure to reduce poppy cultivation and increase eradication is due to the lack of Afghan government support for the effort." The Department also states that the rise in poppy cultivation "is a significant threat to U.S. and international efforts in Afghanistan."

But U.S. poppy eradication and interdiction efforts have been described as spectacular failures. As the Drug Policy Alliance has noted[1], drug eradication efforts have not brought decreases in violence:

Just as alcohol prohibition allowed organized crime to flourish in the 1920s, drug prohibition empowers a dangerous underground market that breeds violent crime throughout the United States and the world. The illegality of drugs has inflated the price, and thus the profit, of drugs substantially. With it, the competition for drug markets has intensified, often through violence. Whether on street corners in U.S. cities, across the border in Mexico, or in the poppy fields of Afghanistan, drug trade-related violence continues, despite the billions of drug war dollars devoted annually to law enforcement and interdiction efforts.

[1] Want a laugh? Look at the source code for that page and see how many times they repeat **This is the main content area**.

This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Thursday October 23 2014, @09:15PM

    by frojack (1554) on Thursday October 23 2014, @09:15PM (#109364) Journal

    If you aren't there in country you have no influence, and throwing money at farmers won't keep them from taking the money and still planting the poppies.

    Far more effective measures would be to pay for legitimate food crops at inflated prices and sell them in the public markets for below the cost of production, and let the poppy exports manage themselves.

    This place has always supplied heroin. And a lot off it is reaching the US. I'd be more interested in how THAT is happening, and I suspect that there is a lot of "looking the other way" going on in high places, if not outright CIA involvement via blackwater type contractors.

    According to the Obama Whitehouse's own website: [whitehouse.gov]

    Global Heroin Supply
    Historically, most of the world's illicit opium for heroin has been grown in the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia. However, over the last decade, opium production in the Golden Triangle has declined while cultivation and production rates in Southwest Asia have increased considerably. In 2010, Afghanistan, as the world's largest opium supplier, accounted for nearly 80 percent of the world's opium, according to UN estimates. During the 1990's, Latin America evolved as the primary supplier of heroin to the United States, with Mexican heroin most prevalent west of the Mississippi and Colombian heroin most prevalent east of it.

    One can not have the Nato withdraw AND at the same time expect any real management of heroin at its source. There are barely enough foreign troops in Afghanistan to guard their own bases today.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
  • (Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Thursday October 23 2014, @09:49PM

    by wonkey_monkey (279) on Thursday October 23 2014, @09:49PM (#109379) Homepage

    Poppy crop. S'fun to say. Poppycrop.

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk
  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by tathra on Friday October 24 2014, @01:17AM

    by tathra (3367) on Friday October 24 2014, @01:17AM (#109433)

    if the US really cared about ending Afghani poppy production, they'da left the Taliban in power. under the Taliban, opium production was almost nil, and it exploded almost overnight after we invaded. while in power, the Taliban wouldn't tolerance drugs, but now they're trafficking them for immense profits.

    the only real solution, short of severe oppression and executing anyone who disobeys, is legalization.

  • (Score: 2) by rts008 on Friday October 24 2014, @03:01AM

    by rts008 (3001) on Friday October 24 2014, @03:01AM (#109462)

    It occurs to me that when we declare war on x, that seems to insure the success, prosperity, and popularity of x.
    And it costs us trillions of dollars.

    Prohibition: organised crime, moonshiners vs. feds, shinerunners leading to NASCAR, criminalization and oppression of the populace, etc.
    It did not work, caused many deaths, injuries, and crime dramatically increased...abandoned as a failure after a decade or less, having wasted millions of dollars.

    War on communism in Korea, and Vietnam. Enough said about the success of those...

    War on drugs: except for NASCAR and millions of dollars and abandoning the failure, same as above.
    Has been ongoing for 50 years, costing taxpayers trillions of dollars, and drugs are more widespread than ever.

    War on terror: Been going on for 12-13 years(invaded two countries-bombing dozens of others), so far costing trillions of dollars, expected to go on for 20-30 more years according to some DoD sources, more groups popping up all the time, etc.

    Why don't we try a different approach: Declare wars on Peace, Prosperity, and Happiness? Looking at the past 50-60 year record, this is the perfect way to acheive them! ;-)

  • (Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Friday October 24 2014, @12:59PM

    by WizardFusion (498) Subscriber Badge on Friday October 24 2014, @12:59PM (#109547) Journal

    If they really really wanted to stop the production, they would just napalm the fields. Much cheaper and more effective.
    Yes, there is the whole argument of putting the farmers out of work, but giving them money to stop is clearly not working.

    • (Score: 2) by Alfred on Friday October 24 2014, @01:40PM

      by Alfred (4006) on Friday October 24 2014, @01:40PM (#109560) Journal
      Yeah this is a real low for the DoD. They could have been more effective if they gave F-16 escorts to a crop-duster loaded with RoundUp but napalm would work too.

      My curiosity makes me wonder if they are that inefficient then should the responsibility should be removed? And maybe the money didn't go to its intended cause, so then what did it go to? (not saying that the government money isn't spent right but just sayin')
  • (Score: 2) by joshuajon on Friday October 24 2014, @05:35PM

    by joshuajon (807) on Friday October 24 2014, @05:35PM (#109662)

    Mod me off topic if you must but this comment:

    "[1] Want a laugh? Look at the source code for that page and see how many times they repeat **This is the main content area**."

    is absolutely ridiculous and has no place on the front page of the site. Who gives a rats ass what's in the source code for the linked web page? The phrase cited doesn't even appear once anyway! This is amateur hour stuff and I'm ashamed to see that it got published.