The U.S. government’s wars on drugs and terrorism are now coming together in
Afghanistan, a nation famous for the production of opium. Prior to the
Taliban regime, Afghanistan had been the world’s largest producer of
poppies. But under the Taliban regime, the Afghan government waged a war on
drugs as fiercely as the U.S. government does, and opium production in
Afghanistan plummeted.
Since the newly installed Afghan government took over, however, poppy
production has once again soared, much to the chagrin of U.S. officials. Of
course, one primary reason production has soared is because of the enormous
black-market price of opium arising from the U.S. government’s war on drugs.
So, what are U.S. officials doing to solve the problem? No, they’re not
installing Taliban officials in the Afghan Drug Enforcement Administration.
You guessed it—they’re throwing U.S. tax money at it! (Isn’t that the way
the feds handle all problems?)
Under this newest drug-war plan, the U.S. government will funnel American
taxpayer monies to Afghan government officials (who of course will not
pocket any of it), who in turn will pay Afghan farmers $500 per acre to
destroy their crops. What happens if the farmers refuse? The farmers get
their crops destroyed anyway. (Talk about an offer they can’t refuse!)
Ashraf Ghani, a senior advisor in the Afghan government, was quite direct:
“State power is based on the legitimate use of force. We hope it doesn’t
reach that point.” Yes, but isn’t the problem that government officials of
all stripes think that ALL use of force by the state is legitimate as a
matter of definition?
