Even
more shocking is the fact that the Afghan narcotics trade has gotten
undeniably worse since the U.S.-led invasion: The country produces twice
as much opium as it did in 2000. How did all those poppy fields flower
under the nose of one of the biggest international military and
development missions of our time? The answer lies partly in the deeply
cynical bargains struck by former Afghan President Hamid Karzai in his
bid to consolidate power, and partly in the way the U.S. military
ignored the corruption of its allies in taking on the Taliban. It’s the
story of how, in pursuit of the War on Terror, we lost the War on Drugs
in Afghanistan by allying with many of the same people who turned the
country into the world’s biggest source of heroin.
Afghanistan produced 6,400 tons of opium in 2014, about 90 percent of the world's supply.
Victor J. Blue
