Cock-eyed poppy policy

Sigh. Yet another 'new strategy' to fight poppies in Afghanistan. Looks pretty much like the old plan to me. They're going to send in a bunch of troops to the poppy growing provinces to "provide security" to the locals against the Taliban. What this means in practical terms is our soldiers will be tramping through the fields exchanging gunfire and dropping bombs to attempt to dislodge the Taliban from the region. It's not going to work.

They seem to think the locals are living in terror of the Taliban. I've been following the situation there for years and that's just not the way it plays out. The locals grow poppies for one reason. Money. It's the only cash crop that provides enough income to barely feed their families. It's my understanding the Taliban provide the seeds and upfront money for cultivation. The Taliban already provide security to protect their investment in the crops. If we march in there and destroy the fields with military missions, the farmers have no way to pay back the loans and end up selling their daughters to the Taliban to settle the debts. Not going to win them over that way.

To be fair, there is a component to this plan to foster alternate agriculture but they have a long way to go before growing wheat is going to offer a comparable income. As I've said too many times to count, the simplest solution would be to buy the poppy crops outright and either use them for supplying the legitimate market for morphine or just destroy them. Either way, the farmer could pay back the loan and the Taliban wouldn't get the product which provides their big funding. Then, until they can develop this imagined alternative economy, it would be cheaper to just pay the locals not to grow poppies, just as we subsidize our own farmers, instead of spending billions on trying to destroy their livelihood.

I read an article in 2003 and this quote stuck with me. "You can't buy an Afghani, but you can rent one." The locals will give their allegiance to whoever can provide enough income to keep them from starving. Bread is a lot cheaper than bullets and bombs. And if we are building something instead of destroying it, I suspect the locals would be willing to sign up for a long term lease on their loyalty.

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