Browsing: Afghanistan

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Long the world's largest producer of opium, the raw ingredient of heroin, Afghanistan has now become the top supplier of cannabis, with large-scale cultivation in half of its provinces, the United Nations said on Wednesday.

Thousands of extra Marines pouring into Afghanistan's opium-growing heartland will go after those who process drugs but not those who grow the crop, the commander of U.S. Marines in the area said.

So it seems that it might be hard to train up the Afghan Army to maintain "order" in Afghanistan after the US leaves in 18 months. Or it might be hard for the US to leave.

President Barack Obama announced yesterday that he intends to send another 30,000 troops to the Afghanistan meat grinder.

It is hard to escape the dual-symbolism of the poppy in relation to the Afghanistan conflict, as the massive illicit profits from poppy fields fuel the violence and help destabilize the entire region.

Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's brother has been on the payroll of the CIA for years, even though he is suspected of being a major figure in the illicit opium trade.

Fifty Afghans believed to be drug traffickers with ties to the Taliban have been placed on a Pentagon target list to be captured or killed, reflecting a major shift in American counternarcotics strategy in Afghanistan, according to a Congressional study to be released this week.
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