An economic/political history of Afghanistan

[wallypiper]

This is a long read, but worth it to gain an understanding of what we have done and are doing in Afghanistan. Why are we there? It's pretty hard to tell, based on what we've been doing there for the last 30 years. What have we accomplished? We've created a country that is, for the most part, the worlds heroin factory. We hear daily about the drug war in Mexico but rarely about it's much bigger, much richer, and much more influential counterpart in Afghanistan. In 2009, we spent about $3.6 billion/month on our Afghan adventure. The opium crop was estimated to be worth $65 billion.

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175225/tomgram:_alfred_mccoy,_afghanistan_as_a_drug_war__/#more

[Butthead]

interesting article. but i don't think they poppy farmers are going to willingly drop their poppy production for corn or some other
crop. what else grows in that awful climate?

[wallypiper]

I don't know other than the few things mentioned in the article. It was an agricultural society before 30 years of war wiped that out but I guess at a subsistence level. And I agree with you. As long as there is a market for the poppies, and they are worth so much more than any other crop they could grow, they will be impossible to get rid of. Nevertheless, it is like Mexico on steroids in terms of the control the drug business has over the country. At this point, for the US, it is just a massive waste of money and lives. Unless we DO find a way to stop the drug trade, it will continue to run the country whether we are there or not. We COULD stop it but that would be cruel if we don't provide some alternate means of support. It is, at the moment, the only way they have of supporting themselves.

[Butthead]

well, we could offer to pay for their healthcare since it is apparently a "right" now.

[winmutt]

well, we could offer to pay for their healthcare since it is apparently a "right" now.

We already are foo.