Obama and Afghanistan: You Can't Handle the Truth?

One part of the phenomenon that we read about called 'Afghanistan' is the opium trade. They say that Afghanis are cultivating opium, which gets turned into heroin, and sold in Russia, Europe etc. How about dealing with the other end of the whole problem, and talking about drugs in modern/western societies?

One way to shut off the revenue flowing east would be very simply for Big Pharma to start turning out opiates/replacements, and sell them cheap or even for free to the apparently heavily addicted populace, and follow that up by arresting, convicting, and then DEPORTING the dealers etc. The same stuff goes on in the United States and involving Mexico, so get to the heart of the problem, here, and in Europe, and wherever else, and let these other countries figure out how to take care of themselves. Also, has The Government done an analysis to make sure that there aren't any Americans etc. involved in the Afghan drug trade, aiding and comforting the enemy, there? Here and there we hear people calling the US an empire, giving outsiders one more thing to shake their fists about, and it bears remembering that part of the British empire's evolution involved...the opium trade.

http://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofEnglish/imperial/india/opium.htm
http://www.britishempire.co.uk/forces/armycampaigns/asia/china/opiumwar.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7460682.stm
"I should correct you. It was not two centuries ago. Under the British Raj, an enormous amount of opium was being exported out of India until the 1920s."

Soooo....having said all that, are we in a 21st century opium war, essentially? GB left their mark on half the world, spreading english, religion, and apparently, opium dependency. (WHAT was in that tea, again? LOL)

Maybe instead of bombs, they need to drop books. And then, get out of the way, and let those people figure out their own 'way forward'.

Final final final question, are all the allegations about the CIA essentially promoting opium trade baseless? Is there anyone from this country that was thus involved, somehow? Are we somehow in the business of creating the problems that this country then promises to solve? How much is known about all aspects of the opium and heroin trades? How much of the problem actually originates here in the United States, in Europe, or elsewhere external to places like Afghanistan? Would the Afghanis be a lot better off, maybe, if everyone including their neighbors concentrated on helping secure borders? It has helped along the US/Mexico border, would an effort in that direction benefit Afghanistan?

Somehow, some way, other countries are going to have to deal with this phenomenon also. But it'll be easier for them if western countries are dealing with the dealers on our own streets, shutting off the revenue completely. Europe has to think about borders, they have to use the 'D' word, deport, sending people home, back where they came from, WITH their dope and their politics, send all the Bob Marley wannabe's packing right back home. Maybe isolationism doesn't sit well with the 'give the world a big cookie' crowd, but there are times and places where it's wiser to just slam the door until/unless people remember their good manners and stop shaking their fists and doing whatever else.

Maybe a good starting point would be trying to define, and then publicly demonstrate, the size, scale, and scope of the heroin problem in more modern countries, such as ours, and how that problem then adversely impacts other countries where government is less organized and thus less able to deal with the problem.

Drugs drugs drugs, war on drugs, maybe if they just legalized it all, and let people get high for .25 a pop, the business model driving the entire mess overseas would stop. Have American farmers grow the stuff under contract with the government, or something, and encourage Europe to do the same, keep the money local, keep the problem under control, hey, Obama wants jobs, right? Ok, staff those medical cliinics, then. Make 2010 the Year That America And Europe Sobered Up. Or At Least Switched To New Heroin Lite(Made In USA!). LOL

Sure, it's not really a laughing matter, but the joke's on us if we keep wasting 100's of billions of dollars to try and regulate and control what goes on overseas when at least part of the problem is in our own back yard, and will yield itself a lot more readily to treatment and enforcement etc. Pluck first the splinter from thine own eye etc. Someone doped up on heroin is not necessarily a public threat. The guy with the baggie of dope and the guns, that's running from the cops might be, though. If they can figure out how to deal with addiction here, then maybe our military doesn't have to be Over There. That's my view.

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Yesterday, the U.S. Senate approved the largest military budget bill in the history of our nation: $626 billion.

Next, the bill will be sent to a conference committee and then back to the House and Senate for final passage.

There remains a short window of opportunity to stop this wasteful military madness.

Tell your members of Congress to vote "NO" on the 2010 defense appropriations bill:

http://bit.ly/stopfundingwar

I've been talking about the resemblance between the Afghan situation and the Vietnam War for a while, but the parallels are getting so extreme it's surreal. We've once again failed to learn the lessons of history, obviously.

I have a proposal for a new way forward in Afghanistan: let's carpet-bomb the Afghan cities and villages with bundles of cash, wrapped in notes saying we're sorry for making such a mess of things and hope this will help fix things up. This would be cheaper than what we're doing now, and it would get the aid directly to the people without the corrupt politicians and generals getting to siphon most of it off. Paying of reparations is a tradition in the Islamic world, so this would be culturally appropriate.

I believe this would deprive the Taliban of much of their support; certainly, those who joined up for pay would quit, many others would find strict religious discipline much less attractive once they can afford some serious materialism.

I think this could work - it sure couldn't do any worse than way we're going now!

It bothers me that the Taliban cut off the fingers of those who have voted. It bothers me that they throw acid in the faces of little girls on their way to school....BUT

We have our own problems and when people are oppressed, it is incumbent upon them to rid themselves of the tyranny. They cannot expect us to do it for them when they don't appreciate us anyway. They have many reasons not to appreciate us.

I liked it when we went in after 911 and bombed the hell out of the Taliban. It was great how women were again able to attend Universities and people were opening up hair salons and TV repair stores. But it's up to them to maintain their own freedom.

Our job is to catch Bin Laden and defeat and dismantle Al Queda worldwide. Therefore, we should pull out of Afghanistan and focus on a cold war, a spy war.

I'm sorry that the Taliban will slay innocents when we leave, but when the people allow themselves to be oppressed without fighting back, that's what happens. It has always been this way on this planet. The people must rise up to save their own nation.

Like we must rise up and save our own from big corporations and banks choking us.