Western Intervention Has Resulted in Afghanistan Becoming the World’s First True Narco-State
January 9th, 2018“How could this be possible?”
Simple. Because that’s the desired outcome.
Afghan Opium Production Rises by 61% Compared with 2010
Brother of Afghan Leader Is Said to Be on CIA Payroll
U.S.-Built Bridge is Windfall for Illegal Afghan Drug Trade
The Invisible Hand of the Market: British Troops Seize £50 Million of Afghan Opium
Officials Puzzle Over Millions of Dollars Leaving Afghanistan by Plane for Dubai
Afghans Believe U.S. is Funding Taliban
NATO Forces Supplied Food, Water and Arms to Taliban Forces in Southern Afghanistan
Blackwater Worldwide Changes Its Name to Xe; Same Mercenaries, but Now with More “Aviation Support”
$7 Billion U.S. Eradication Effort Delivers Record High Poppy Crop in Afghanistan
U.S. Funded, Trained and Equipped Afghan Air Force Running Guns and Drugs
Via: Guardian:
After fighting the longest war in its history, the US stands at the brink of defeat in Afghanistan. How could this be possible? How could the world’s sole superpower have battled continuously for more than 16 years – deploying more than 100,000 troops at the conflict’s peak, sacrificing the lives of nearly 2,300 soldiers, spending more than $1tn (£740bn) on its military operations, lavishing a record $100bn more on “nation-building”, helping fund and train an army of 350,000 Afghan allies – and still not be able to pacify one of the world’s most impoverished nations? So dismal is the prospect of stability in Afghanistan that, in 2016, the Obama White House cancelled a planned withdrawal of its forces, ordering more than 8,000 troops to remain in the country indefinitely.
In the American failure lies a paradox: Washington’s massive military juggernaut has been stopped in its steel tracks by a small pink flower – the opium poppy. Throughout its three decades in Afghanistan, Washington’s military operations have succeeded only when they fit reasonably comfortably into central Asia’s illicit traffic in opium – and suffered when they failed to complement it.
Research Credit: Jb
