Afghanistan

The military coalition. led by US elements of course, begin an offensive this weekend in Helmand, the heart of the world's opium trade. Our enemies are a coalition also. Of Taliban and drug warlords. Slavers who take the local farmers, addicted to the tears of the poppy, and employ them in serfdom to fuel the coffers of tyranny disguised as fundamental Islam. Fundamental Islam. Now in my country and quite a few others for that matter, fundamental Islam manages to co-exist, in the same neighborhoods, with Orthodox Judaism, born-again Christians, Wiccans, pagans, Freemasons, Nazis and all the others, without daily warfare. In fact, violence for religious or ethnic reasons is rarer and rarer in diverse societies and in the US especially. Economic motivations on the other hand breed both strange bedfellows and bizarre feuds. This begs the conclusion that the mess in the Middle East, most specifically the Valentines Day Offensive, is motivated in the least by the Taliban and their desire to impose Islamic tyranny, but rather by the interests of those people who control and use the 70-90% of the world's HEROIN supply produced in Helmand. Certainly not to suggest that the Taliban are anything but a willing tool of evil men that care not about either Allah or Jesus. Men who are willing to pay the Taliban to run a government that will allow them to continue to produce a crop that is more valuable than all the gold in history. And as long as the Taliban rule the money continues to flow...............

In the 1950's at a place called Gereshk, the US Army Corps of Engineers built a dam that diverted water from the Helmand River and created the Boghra Canal. This is the irrigation project that allowed Helmand to become the major producer of Opium in the world. Perhaps shutting the dam and depriving the region of its agricultural ability is the only solution. While harsh and certainly not devoid of consequences to the 1.4 million residents of Helmand, this solution does in fact teach the broader lesson of responsibility. More simply, if the developed world makes a major investment in your agricultural infrastructure it is not a good idea to use it to grow the most deadly illicit drug on the Earth.

F. Lynn ~ Boston