Afghani crops: The next U.S. scapegoat
Angela Macdonald
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| DoD- 300 tons of poppy are blown up by air-strike in southern Afghanistan July 24, 2009 As if our government has any control over what they call a drug “problem” in the United States, they are now taking their show on the road. Early this week, the U.S. military dropped the bomb on Afghanistan poppy farmers who have refused the demands of the U.S. Agency for International Development to replace their crops with wheat. Tuesday, 300 tons of poppy seed were blown up in the middle of a large, dusty vast of land in Helmand province. Those dirty little poppy seeds were first taken out by a group of 1,000 pound bombs. Being so unwilling to just give up and die, the poppies were then taken down by a helicopter air-strike. Apparently this is how the U.S. pounds its own chest in attempt to let the Taliban know they are on to their involvement in the Heroin industry. U.S. State Department representative, Tony Wayne, stated the [unrelenting] strikes were part of a strategy to stop the Taliban and other insurgents from profiting off the poppy seeds. Once again the U.S. government has gone, in the name of money and profit, and blown up billions of innocent poppies. I�m sure the Taliban and other insurgents are shaking in their boots. Flexing our military strength on a bunch of poppy seeds is hardly intimidating, and from the sounds of it, another enormous waste of money. Wayne went on to justify this case of over-kill, and the unnecessary risking of the lives of our servicemen and women by saying, “Also, it is part of winning the hearts and minds of the population because in some cases they are intimidated into growing poppies.” Apparently, blowing up someone�s land and then giving them large amounts of money to re-build is how the hearts and minds are being won over in Afghanistan, since the USAID “alternative farming” programs have distributed more than $22 million to just over 200,000 Afghanis. USAID says they are “weaning” the farmers away from poppy production. I say if “some” of the Afghani farmers are being intimidated then those “some” should have had their crops blown up if they want. What about the remainder of the “some” that weren�t being intimidated? Do you really think you are going to make any friends blowing up someone�s livelihood? No wonder these people hate our guts! Did anyone get the memo? It seems the different agencies of the U.S. government need to get together on their facts before trying to tie heroin to anything significant, because according to the National Drug Threat Assessment for 2007 the, “overall abuse levels for heroin are lower than levels for other drugs, including cocaine and marijuana.” More importantly, the report says, “For the past several years, the heroin market in the United States was generally divided along the Mississippi River. To the west of the Mississippi River, black tar heroin and, to a lesser extent, brown powder heroin from Mexico were the primary types available. To the east of the Mississippi, white powder heroin, primarily from Colombia, but also from Southwest and Southeast Asia, was the primary type of heroin available.” Sounds like the Heroin industry funding the Taliban is so profitable they aren�t even the main source of Heroin for the country that is primarily responsible for destroying this crop. Beyond that, in the U.S., our primary source for opiate production is from pharmaceutical companies. The current eradication of poppy production in Afghanistan is based on money and controlling the flow of income to a certain group of people. With all the reasons to rid the world of Heroin, money and terrorism are the reasons behind this brut show of force. I don�t imagine the motivation for the eradication of marijuana in our own country has to do with anything but money either, although too many people in our country are still brainwashed into thinking the government is protecting us from something. Hopefully, the State Department isn�t planning any trips anytime soon to my neighborhood in hopes of winning our hearts and minds. Resources:National Drug Threat Assessment-Heroin Pharmaceutical Threat Assessment CNN video of the bombing (interesting slant on protecting the world from the opium of this area) |
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