Afghanistan

[billy.pilgrim]

Didn't they give up on fighting the drug war a couple of years before 9.11?

Who, the Taliban or the US?

Taliban

I remember reading that backing off the drug wat was the only way they could gain support from the drug lords.

[billy.pilgrim]

Strange planet.

Now in power, Taliban set sights on Afghan drug underworld

When they were in power before the Taliban nearly eradicated poppy production.
The US then facilitated poppies as a way of funding friendly warlords without direct payments, something we've done for drug producers around the world. For example, Contra cocaine helped create the crack epidemic. Afghan heroin exports soared.
The Taliban also funded their insurgency by taxing poppies.
Will heroin exports now plummet? We'll see, for now the Taliban have limited revenue options.

I didn't read the entire article, so I may have missed something.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... ick-habit/

"There is evidence of opium production in Afghanistan since at least the 18th century, scholars have said. But the industry only began to thrive after 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded, setting off a protracted period of conflict in the country that has lasted almost unbroken until the present.

Before the Taliban effectively seized power in 1996, around 59 percent of global opium production was estimated by the United Nations to be from the country. But production rose quickly under the Taliban’s auspices, drawing international criticism.

Taliban founder Mohammad Omar banned the cultivation and trade of opium in July 2000 and received a $43 million grant in U.S. counternarcotics funding. A U.N. report released the following year suggested the policy was showing signs of success.

But the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan a year later upended that. As more and more rural areas of Afghanistan fell out of government control, poppy cultivation soared. By 2004, it had surpassed the peak of the first Taliban era and would soon go on to double it. Efforts to end the industry, backed by the United States, faltered.

In classified interviews published by The Washington Post as the Afghanistan Papers, officials admitted it wasn’t just the Taliban enabling the trade."

[Ulysses]

Opium is not hard to grow.

But I think it's way overrated.

[neoplacebo]

Centuries of opium smokers and heroin addicts disagree. One should not engage in any battles without some sort of weapon whether it be wits, chains, knives, or bludgeons.

[Vrede too]

Opium is not hard to grow.

But I think it's way overrated.

What experience are you speaking from?

[Vrede too]

I didn't read the entire article, so I may have missed something.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/20 ... ick-habit/ ...

Wiki largely agrees with your WaPo excerpt, though it gives far more credit to the success of the Taliban's anti-opium efforts.

Opium production in Afghanistan: Rise of the Taliban (1994–2001)

During the Taliban rule, Afghanistan saw a bumper opium crop of 4,500 metric tons (4,400 long tons; 5,000 short tons) in 1999.

In July 2000, Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar, collaborating with the UN to eradicate heroin production in Afghanistan, declared that growing poppies was un-Islamic, resulting in one of the world's most successful anti-drug campaigns. The Taliban enforced a ban on poppy farming via threats, forced eradication, and public punishment of transgressors. The result was a 99% reduction in the area of opium poppy farming in Taliban-controlled areas, roughly three quarters of the world's supply of heroin at the time. The ban was effective only briefly due to the deposition of the Taliban in 2001.

But, there's a caveat:

However, some people (Martin, An Intimate War, 2014), suggest that certain parties benefited from the price increase during the ban. Some, even believe it was a form of market manipulation on the part of certain drug lords. Dried opium, unlike most agricultural products, can easily be stored for long periods without refrigeration or other expensive equipment. With huge stashes of opium stored in secret hideaways, the Taliban and other groups that were involved in the drug trade were in theory able to make huge personal profits during the price spikes after the 2000 ban and the chaos following the September 11 attacks.

Whatever, both sources agree that the US occupation led to a massive increase in opium production, and that it only became worse over the years. We'll see what happens under the new govt.

[Vrede too]

Opium is not hard to grow.

But I think it's way overrated.

What experience are you speaking from?

Turns out the Afghanistan army was way overrated, too.

The Afghan military was made up of 'ghost' soldiers who didn't actually exist, and that's why it collapsed so rapidly: ex-finance minister

Khalid Payenda, Afghanistan's former finance minister, told BBC News that most of the 300,000 Afghan troops didn't exist and were in fact "ghost" soldiers made up by corrupt officials who exploited the system for money....

US brass and other officials had to have known. Their silence proves that they were grifting for years, too.

[neoplacebo]

It was a jobs program and has been since 79 when the Soviets went in. The US provided jobs and weapons to the "freedom fighters" who were nothing more than regional tough guys. Once the Soviets decided "fuck this shit" the US continued to stoke simmering strife until the Taliban came along and presented us with a new enemy. So the US jobs program took on a new face as the sponsor of an "army" of a legitimate government. Except neither the army or the government were actually legitimate. Probably one of the most expensive jobs programs in history as well as one of the most useless.

[Ulysses]

Centuries of opium smokers and heroin addicts disagree. One should not engage in any battles without some sort of weapon whether it be wits, chains, knives, or bludgeons.

Oh, I grew some opium about 40 years ago in an undisclosed location. It grows like a weed. Or, like a poppy, which is the California state flower. Like I say, overrated, IMHO. But then I've never been a big fan of getting zonked mindless.

YMMV

[neoplacebo]

Centuries of opium smokers and heroin addicts disagree. One should not engage in any battles without some sort of weapon whether it be wits, chains, knives, or bludgeons.

Oh, I grew some opium about 40 years ago in an undisclosed location. It grows like a weed. Or, like a poppy, which is the California state flower. Like I say, overrated, IMHO. But then I've never been a big fan of getting zonked mindless.

YMMV

Well, I suggest there's nothing wrong with getting zonked mindless as long as one is able to revert back to "normal" after a few hours. Some folks just can't handle it, which is good since that leaves more of the stuff for those of us who can. I once got some opium in Taiwan; it came in a small segment of a McDonalds striped plastic straw. Making a slit in the straw (it was self sealing, as the opium was of the stickiest of the sticky variety) and dabbing a streak of the opium along the side of a cigarette and then casually smoking that cigarette produced a fine level of intoxication that had been enjoyed by millions over the span of more than a thousand years. It was a true honor to participate in it.

[Ulysses]

Centuries of opium smokers and heroin addicts disagree. One should not engage in any battles without some sort of weapon whether it be wits, chains, knives, or bludgeons.

Oh, I grew some opium about 40 years ago in an undisclosed location. It grows like a weed. Or, like a poppy, which is the California state flower. Like I say, overrated, IMHO. But then I've never been a big fan of getting zonked mindless.

YMMV

Well, I suggest there's nothing wrong with getting zonked mindless as long as one is able to revert back to "normal" after a few hours. Some folks just can't handle it, which is good since that leaves more of the stuff for those of us who can. I once got some opium in Taiwan; it came in a small segment of a McDonalds striped plastic straw. Making a slit in the straw (it was self sealing, as the opium was of the stickiest of the sticky variety) and dabbing a streak of the opium along the side of a cigarette and then casually smoking that cigarette produced a fine level of intoxication that had been enjoyed by millions over the span of more than a thousand years. It was a true honor to participate in it.

Yeah, well, to each his own.

I prefer to keep my wits about me, such as they are.

Not that I haven't tried to return them to the lost and found more than a few times, mind you.

[Vrede too]

A US drone strike killed 10 Afghan civilians in Kabul on Sunday. The US and its allies killed thousands of civilians since the war began.

We suck.

This was not even "collateral damage". The target was not a militant.

A US drone strike the military called 'righteous' mistakenly targeted an aid worker and killed 10 Afghan civilians, including 7 kids, a report says

We really suck.

No troops disciplined in US strike killing Afghan civilians

No U.S. troops involved in the August drone strike that killed innocent Kabul civilians and children will face disciplinary action, U.S. defense officials said Monday.

The Pentagon said that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has approved recommendations for improvements in strike operations from the generals who lead U.S. Central Command and Special Operations Command, based on the findings of an independent Pentagon review released last month. There were no recommendations for discipline made by the generals, said John Kirby, chief Pentagon spokesman.

The review, done by Air Force Lt. Gen. Sami Said and endorsed by Austin in November, found there were breakdowns in communication and in the process of identifying and confirming the target of the bombing, which killed 10 civilians, including seven children. But he concluded that the strike was a tragic mistake and not caused by misconduct or negligence....

The Aug. 29 drone strike on a white Toyota Corolla sedan killed Zemerai Ahmadi and nine family members, including seven children. Ahmadi, 37, was a longtime employee of an American humanitarian organization....

Steven Kwon, founder of Nutrition & Education International, the aid organization Zemari worked for, called the disciplinary decision shocking on Monday.

“How can our military wrongly take the lives of ten precious Afghan people, and hold no one accountable in any way?” he said. “When the Pentagon absolves itself of accountability, it sends a dangerous and misleading message that its actions were somehow justified.” ...

Pentagon to the dead, their family, humanitarian organizations, Afghanistan and the world: "Oops."

[Vrede too]

The lower quartile has been tapped.

She's back.

Well, I suggest there's nothing wrong with getting zonked mindless as long as one is able to revert back to "normal" after a few hours. Some folks just can't handle it, which is good since that leaves more of the stuff for those of us who can. I once got some opium in Taiwan; it came in a small segment of a McDonalds striped plastic straw. Making a slit in the straw (it was self sealing, as the opium was of the stickiest of the sticky variety) and dabbing a streak of the opium along the side of a cigarette and then casually smoking that cigarette produced a fine level of intoxication that had been enjoyed by millions over the span of more than a thousand years. It was a true honor to participate in it.

Some people are mindless without drugs:

GOP Lawmaker's Bafflingly 'Stupid’ Argument Against Humanitarian Aid Stuns Critics
Apparently in Rep. Anna Paulina Luna's books, if it's not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, it's not a thing.

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) offered head-scratching logic on Thursday when she argued that the U.S. shouldn’t provide humanitarian aid to women and children in Afghanistan because it’s not mentioned in the Constitution.

Luna delivered the baffling line of reasoning during House debate over an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would gut funding for Afghan aid.

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), who introduced the amendment, argued the funding could be supporting the brutal Taliban regime.

Evidence?

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) voiced “strong opposition” to the measure, noting that it “ties the administration’s hands in how it can best support the people of Afghanistan living under Taliban rule.”

“It prohibits the use of any funds authorized via this bill to be used, even tangentially, to aid in our support of the millions of Afghan women and girls suffering under Taliban rule,” she said, “or to those Afghans living in poverty and in need of humanitarian relief.” ...

We helped break Afghanistan.

So we only do things in the Constitution? What makes her especially shitty is that she’s a veteran. So many of our brothers and sisters agonize over the plight of our Afghan allies and Luna just shits all over them.

There’s nothing in the constitution about confederate monuments either.

doesn't say anything about cars either so I guess they should all be illegal

House Republicans are the dumbest, most unserious people in America right now lol like wtf is this argument? Football isn’t in the constitution either, should we go ahead and just cancel football then? This person is either dumber than dirt or acting in bad faith.

They are having a stupidity contest and the competition is fierce.

The amendment passed 247-185. 220 RepuQs were unanimous in support. No more humanitarian aid to women and children in Afghanistan.