NATO commander..."Kill all opium dealers"

[Shlomart Ben Yisrael]

Gen. Craddock Determined to Turn War On Taliban Into War on Drugs

In what at the time seemed like an uncharacteristically harsh outburst, General Craddock lashed out at NATO allies in October for their reticence in approving military raids on the drug industry.


How many weeks until the general "decides" to "retire" due to "exhaustion"?

[Cuda]

What, were they shorting Craddock on his share of the bribes?

At the risk of sounding like Lagos, if you want to make the drug trade unprofitable, legalize it.

[BSmack]

At the risk of sounding like Lagos, if you want to make the drug trade unprofitable, legalize it.

That would create an even larger market for Afghani opium, idiot.

Why? Is it impossible to grow poppy plants stateside?

[BSmack]

OK, what about Mexico?

[Goober McTuber]

At the risk of sounding like Lagos, if you want to make the drug trade unprofitable, legalize it.

That would create an even larger market for Afghani opium, idiot.

He was trying to sound like Lagos, so “idiot” probably works as a compliment.

[Dinsdale]

Why? Is it impossible to grow poppy plants stateside?

They grow quite readily... or so I hear.

[Dr_Phibes]

Of course this strategy would entail actual combat, so the Euro pussies want nothing to do with it.

Not really, European NATO members are only there on condition that their duties are policing, that's all they're manned and equipped for - as they were assured that the areas they're operating in were supposed to be secured prior to their arrival.

I know the British army is desperate to avoid conficts with drug traffickers, they've got enough problems to deal with and they're not stupid - the Soviets got caught up in all those little morality plays and just wound up pissing off all the wrong people.
And of all things, there was no drug problem when the Taliban was running things.

Then you've got people like Gates and this half-wit, not understanding the elementary concepts of NATO involvement - it completely boggles the mind. Impotent rage.
I look forward to Obama expanding this debacle

[Cuda]

Why? Is it impossible to grow poppy plants stateside?

They grow quite readily... or so I hear.

Are you saying poppies grow other places besides Afghanistan? [/sarcasm]

Point is, the main factor in keeping dope prices (and thus dope profits) high is that they're illegal. Legalization would only cut into the profit margin. Marginally profitable Mexican opium would become entirely unprofitable overnight. Mind you, I wouldn't disagree with buying up the Afghan opium crop, but then what to do with it? As long as it remains illegal, there'll be crooks who'll just resell it and not pay taxes on the income. And wasn't the CIA accused of doing exactly that at some time or other? If it were legal, there'd be no stigma in skimming off the crop- at least no more than is normal when it comes to gubmint cheese and whatforth

[Dinsdale]

Are you saying poppies grow other places besides Afghanistan? [/sarcasm]

No, really -- the most commonly grown flower on earth does actually grow outside of Afghanistan.


Papavars actually like NW Oregon better than they like their native habitat.... SHHHHHHH!!!!! They don't grow right on the side of the road along major city streets around here or anything... much less pop up on their own in peoples' yards, where they're propagated like Johnny Fucking Poppyseed went on a meth bender.

It does have legitimate pharmaceutical uses or you could just burn it. What to do with it after we buy it doesn't enter into the rationale.

And what the Asshats In Charge aren't telling you, is there's a bigtime shortage of morphine in the world, since most of what's produced ends up in the USA and other developed nations... bigtime shortage.


So rather than let the Afghanis do what they've done for centuries, in a legal free marketplace, making themselves financially independent while helping health care in poor countries, the "hearts and minds" strategy involves starving them out, even as the Taliban does a 180 and turns a blind eye to the opium trade they once abhorred.


Pure. Fucking. Genius.


Maybe we should tell them what to have for breakfast every morning, and what time they can use the bathroom -- it's consitant with our current "hearts and minds" policy.


Dead enemies on the battlefield spawns more enemies. Put a dollar in your enemy's pocket, and he suddenly becomes your friend.

[Tom In VA]

They just damn near cornered the market.

Must have been the crop report Clarence Beeks got for them.

[Dinsdale]

the Taliban does a 180 and turns a blind eye to the opium trade they once abhorred.

They never abhorred it. They just damn near cornered the market.

Uhm... wrong.

The Taliban instituted a strict Islamist policy against the opium trade during the final years of their regime, and by the time of their overthrow they had virtually eliminated it. But now, Lieutenant General Mohammad Daud-Daud, Afghanistan’s deputy minister of the interior for counter-narcotics, told me, “there has been a coalition between the Taliban and the opium smugglers. This year, they have set up a commission to tax the harvest.” In return, he said, the Taliban had offered opium farmers protection from the government’s eradication efforts. The switch in strategy has an obvious logic: it provides opium money for the Taliban to sustain itself and helps it to win over the farming communities.

I can post another 1500 articles to that æffect, if you like.



But regardless, shame on our military leaders... how does it feel to be stratigically inferior to/dumber than the fucking Taliban?


The Taliban now offers a modicum of hope (to a dirt-eater, anyway)... the USA offers poverty and starvation... who you think Afghanis will side with?


STUPID fucking strategy, which is why Afghanistan is going so miserably, despite an inferior opponent.

[Lillian Vernon]

The specific use for opiates mvscal has personal experience with is using them to ease the pain in his anal region after a night on the town.

[LTS TRN 2]

He's absolutely correct. Killing the insurgency's gravytrain would force them to fight on our terms or die on the vine. There isn't much else that they would be forced to defend. Think buffalo and plains Indians in the late 19th century. We wiped out the buffalo and that wiped out the economic basis for their independence and forced them onto the reservations. The same principle applies here.

Of course this strategy would entail actual combat, so the Euro pussies want nothing to do with it.

Categoric bullshit, as usual from a total fraud. First, the U.S. currently grows tons of opium in Turkey for our actual medicinal needs--pain killers. This is a costly and inefficient enterprise compared to the ideal conditions for growing poppies in Afghanistan. If the U.S. military leaders had any sense at all they would of course simply encourage the Afghan farmers to grow their natural crop, and then the U.S. government could buy it cheap. That way the local population is actually functional and reasonably harmonious in their environment, and Big Pharma makes out like a bandit. Plus, whatever money the Taliban is making from illegal sales dries up.

Your insane comparison of (attempted?) opium eradication with the slaughter of America's buffalo herds--so as to destabilize a few thousand primitive nomads on the great plains is so demented and Limpdickian that you should get a pat on the head from the great blathering hog himself.

[Derron]

It is the only industry in one of the most backward and undeveloped countries on the face of the earth. Check out the fact that the literacy rate for males is about 53%, and 21% for females. The average life expectancy is 47 for females and 43 for males. They live in mud huts, behind walls to keep their goats and shit in. They don't have cars, they ride camels and donkeys and tractors.

I have a picture of my son standing in a weed field with 12 foot tall plants with some of the finest looking and largest bud you ever going to see. If was 7 fucking acres of weed like that. They go out and make the farmers take out the opium, but they can leave the weed. He said they harvested that field overnight one night.

Of course, on of the opium farmers had 1000 pounds of ammonium nitrate as a "fertilizer," (IED materials) and 5 pounds of processed heroin in his house. I can tell you the ROE's for them are not,,, and will not be calling for them to blast drug growers, because they would have to shoot everyone they contact.

In the area of my sons FOB, he says that is all they do for income is grow dope, weed or opium. And compare Afghanistan climate to any area in the US and you can easily grow poppies any where, in quantity. It is very labor intensive, as they have to scrape the opium off the poppy, and therefore does not lend itself to western style cultivation.

[Tom In VA]

Afghanis doing the jobs Americans won't do too I guess.

[Dr_Phibes]

Craddock did get the sack a few months after saying that.

[Tom In VA]

Craddock did get the sack a few months after saying that.

Sounds kinky.