Record opium crop in Afghanistan says UN's drug agency

Why is that any of our business? Just because we dont like it? "We" find it immoral or something?

That's not our country, who are we to tell them what to grow? If we dont want it in our country, then it's our responsibility to keep it out...as we do try but let's face it, our borders are sieves and in general, for many reasons, need to be tightened up.

Their people deserve to make a living and better economics for them equals a better educated society that wont be as reliant on religious fundamentalists.
 
Lorca said:
Why is that any of our business? Just because we dont like it? "We" find it immoral or something?

That's not our country, who are we to tell them what to grow? If we dont want it in our country, then it's our responsibility to keep it out...as we do try but let's face it, our borders are sieves and in general, for many reasons, need to be tightened up.

Their people deserve to make a living and better economics for them equals a better educated society that wont be as reliant on religious fundamentalists.
Click to expand...

Another one that needs a history lesson.

In 1969 the Afghan government and the American planners finally promised "the year of yield take-off".

But there was a drought. The Helmand river became a trickle. The main reservoir created by the project dried up completely. Wheat yields were the lowest in the world - 4 bushels to the acre - Iowa's yield was 180 bushels to the acre. This created a massive food crisis which began to destabilize the government and the King.
There were student strikes. Many of the student leaders came from the engineering department which was now full of communist and Maoist cells. Then one of the communist students defected to a new group of revolutionaries - the Islamists. He was called Gulbaddin Hekmatyar, and he became notorious for his violence. Some say he went round throwing acid in the faces of women without headscarves, but he denies this and says that if he lived in the west he would sue for libel. He was given a nickname - The Engineer.
In 1972 parliament was suspended and a year later the Prime Minister Daoud joined with the army to mount a coup that got rid of the King. It was the beginning of the chaos that would lead the country into anarchy and disaster. And the end of the dreams of the Helmand Valley Project. The Americans began to leave, abandoning a vast infrastructure that started to decay.
But during the Soviet war both sides found a use for the remains of the project. The giant reservoir was used to dump bodies tortured and killed by the Khalq communists. While the Mujahedin used the water chanels for cover when fighting the Russians
And the new soil was very suitable for a new crop - the opium poppy. It grows well in dry climates and in alkaline and saline soils, and poppy-growing increased massively in Helmand in the 1980s. And with it the heroin trade.
Click to expand...


http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2009/10/kabul_city_number_one_part_3.html
 
Lorca said:
Why is that any of our business? Just because we dont like it? "We" find it immoral or something?

That's not our country, who are we to tell them what to grow? If we dont want it in our country, then it's our responsibility to keep it out...as we do try but let's face it, our borders are sieves and in general, for many reasons, need to be tightened up.

Their people deserve to make a living and better economics for them equals a better educated society that wont be as reliant on religious fundamentalists.
Click to expand...

You just don't have a clue, the US created the conditions for heroin as nothing else would grow especially in Helmand province. You Yanks don't even know about your own history.
 
Aoxomoxoa said:
You just don't have a clue, the US created the conditions for heroin as nothing else would grow especially in Helmand province. You Yanks don't even know about your own history.
Click to expand...

I have read about that. Next assumption?

And what does that have to do with their industry there today? Well, we may be seeding them with more $$ again I guess. But a few yrs ago we, as part of our military strategy, also decided to take a more hands-off policy when it came to their heroin fields. Esp in not burning them as we found them. As it was quite counter-productive to our efforts to win 'hearts and minds' in Afghanistan. Among other reasons.
 
Lorca said:
I have read about that. Next assumption?

And what does that have to do with their industry there today? Well, we may be seeding them with more $$ again I guess. But a few yrs ago we, as part of our military strategy, also decided to take a more hands-off policy when it came to their heroin fields. Esp in not burning them as we found them. As it was quite counter-productive to our efforts to win 'hearts and minds' in Afghanistan. Among other reasons.
Click to expand...

Well wouldn't it make a lot more sense to buy the crop and use it to make pharmaceuticals like morphine and codeine? Don't you think the US has some responsibility by virtue of that fact that they destroyed the fertility of the soil and turned it too alkaline to grow crops?
 
Is this anywhere near Afghanustan, the nation you posted about earlier, foreigner?



Anybody fancy getting stoned in Afghanustan


http://www.justplainpolitics.com/showthread.php?58169-Anybody-fancy-getting-stoned-in-Afghanustan
 
Aoxomoxoa said:
Well wouldn't it make a lot more sense to buy the crop and use it to make pharmaceuticals like morphine and codeine? Don't you think the US has some responsibility by virtue of that fact that they destroyed the fertility of the soil and turned it too alkaline to grow crops?
Click to expand...

If the industry works out for them, if they have markets, who cares?

Can you imagine the self-righteous outrage in this country if we bought their opiates? (not that it would bother me).
 
Lorca said:
If the industry works out for them, if they have markets, who cares?

Can you imagine the self-righteous outrage in this country if we bought their opiates? (not that it would bother me).
Click to expand...

Obviously you have never heard of the Senlis Plan. There is currently a worldwide shortage of medical opiates, poppies are grown in India and indeed in England but there isn't enough to supply the Third World. The crop could be bought for a few hundred million dollars.

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/397/senlisplan.shtml

[url]http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1106/a08.html?97672
[/URL]
 
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