Cleaning Up Afghanistan

Get The Drug Lords



For years, Afghanistan has been the big sore on the world when it comes to the herion trade.
Now, NATO is stepping into do war with these drug warlords.

General Richards said at a news conference in Kabul, the capital, that the violence in southern Afghanistan was inextricably linked to drugs.

“Essentially for the last four years some very brutal people have been developing their little fiefdoms down there and exporting a lot of opium to the rest of the world,” General Richards said.

“That very evil trade is being threatened by the NATO expansion in the south,” he added. “This is a very noble cause we’re engaged in and we have to liberate the people from that scourge of those warlords.”

Afghanistan is going through the bloodiest phase of violence since the fall of the Taliban government in 2001, with most attacks occurring in the south.

NATO’s expansion in the south signals the end of the American-led coalition’s big offensive there, which started last month and resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people, including militants, civilians, soldiers and government officials.

The Taliban, rebels tied to the country’s former rulers, and drug gangs have operated freely in the south for years and are putting up fierce resistance.

Afghanistan is the world’s top producer of opium and its derivative, heroin. Opium poppy cultivation is increasing in the south, and it profits have helped finance the insurgency, according to security analysts.

General Richards said NATO, with up to 9,000 troops from 37 countries, would not target the opium farmers, but would try to provide security to foster development of an “alternative economy.”

Well, better late than never.