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Dec 6th, 2017
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Joined: Jun 2004
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Administrator Bionic Scribe
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Administrator Bionic Scribe
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 21,134 |
A former senior US anti-drug official has accused Afghanistan's president of playing the US "like a fiddle" and protecting drug lords in his country for political reasons.
Thomas Schweich, who until June served as US state department co-ordinator for counter-narcotics and justice reform for Afghanistan, said Hamid Karzai was impeding the so-called war on drugs.
But the US government underscored its continued support for Karzai on Thursday despite the allegations.
Schweich wrote in an article on the New York Times website on Wednesday that "narco-corruption went to the top of the Afghan government".
Karzai told reporters he did not know about the specific allegations in the New York Times report but he defended Kabul's attempt to target the problem.
"Without a doubt, some Afghans are drugs smugglers, but the majority of them are the international mafia who do not live in Afghanistan," he said.
Drug production has skyrocketed since the US-led invasion that ousted the Taliban in 2001.
Life is a banquet -- and most poor suckers are starving to death -- Auntie Mame
You are born naked and everything else is drag - RuPaul
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Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 52
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 52 |
Hate to be the bearer of bad news but Duh…
I’m not able to find the article but about the time the Taliban brokered the deal for some hijackers to chill out [I think it was an Indian Airbus, end of the Clinton years], they also outlawed opium. A lot of this ties to the warlords of the north that were selling to fund their war against the Taliban so it would make sense for a ruling part to outlaw the source of money [almost like Bush Booze running but with tanks and rockets]. When we first went in, my enemy’s enemy once again became the rule of the day. So anyone that we put in power would have to have the general support of the warlords who still make their money making poppy seed buns.
Cheers
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Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 12,129 Likes: 257
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Feb 2006
Posts: 12,129 Likes: 257 |
This is really about the central ideological conflict in Afghanistan: Radical Islam versus Capitalism.
If you take away their only marketable product, Capitalism fails. I'm sure most Afghans would rather have good jobs, nice houses, and new cars, but I don't see that in any conceivable future. Unless maybe the numbers pencil out that it would be cheaper for us (the US) to just pay them all stipends (like we do in Iraq) rather than to occupy the place.
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Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 61
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 61 |
Money money money monay..... MONAY!!! 
Charles
"Of a gentleman who is frivolous none stand in awe, nor can his learning be sound. Make faithfulness and truth thy masters:" ~ Confucius
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 47,430 Likes: 373
Member CHB-OG
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Member CHB-OG
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 47,430 Likes: 373 |
What's the saying? "If you build it - they will come." ...by extension, if you grow it - they will buy. Doesn't America want capitalism to flourish abroad? 
Contrarian, extraordinaire
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