Pubdate: Sun, 17 Feb 2008
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Page: E - 5
Copyright: 2008 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact:  http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Joel Brinkley
Note: Joel Brinkley is a professor of journalism at Stanford 
University and a former foreign policy correspondent for the New York Times.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Taliban
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POPPY FIELDS PROVE FERTILE GROUND FOR TALIBAN

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates warned European leaders last week 
that unless they stepped up their support for Afghanistan, they would 
likely face more terrorist attacks at home.

His remarks, in Munich, were the most strident in a weeklong 
succession of warnings from Washington that Afghanistan would fall 
deeper into chaos unless Europe assigns more troops to the NATO force there.

While the warnings and retorts flew across the Atlantic, the United 
Nations put out a major report that got little notice but could have 
a more direct effect on the security problem than troop deployments 
or counterterrorism strategies. The U.N. drug-control office found 
that Afghanistan's opium-poppy crop, in the words of the agency's 
executive director, was once again "shockingly high."

Neither Gates nor other officials involved in last week's public 
debate over Afghanistan's future ever mentioned the opium-poppy 
problem - except once, in answer to a question. They seem preoccupied 
with putting more boots on the ground.

What none seem to realize or want to admit, however, is that the 
opium problem has helped create and sustain the Taliban insurgency. 
Without it, the Taliban would have trouble maintaining their offense. 
And yet, while the United States and Europe continue to agonize about 
the deteriorating situation, little is being done about the poppies.

That United Nations report plainly states what most people in public 
life have quietly assumed: that the Taliban extort money from the 
poppy farmers. U.N. workers interviewed dozens of these farmers and 
then ran the numbers. Last week, the executive director of the U.N. 
agency that published the opium report, Antonio Maria Costa, made 
public the conclusion.

"Opium is a massive source of revenue for the Taliban," Costa said. 
"They tax farmers, it's called the usher, set roughly at 10 percent, 
and generate close to $100 million a year."

One hundred million dollars a year!

How much explosives and weaponry can Taliban leaders buy with that? 
How many families of suicide bombers can they pay off? For all that 
money, how eager might they be to keep the insurgency going, to 
maintain control of the southern and southwestern provinces where the 
bulk of the poppies are grown?

That money is, of course, wholly unaccountable. Taliban leaders can 
do with it whatever they want. With all that wealth, they're not 
likely to buy BMWs and palatial homes complete with saunas and home 
theaters. But perhaps they are stashing cash in foreign banks for the 
future. It's a rare person, no matter how righteous, who does not 
appreciate wealth. And the opium trade is a steady, reliable gravy 
train - for their terrorist insurgency and, potentially, for themselves.

The $100 million estimate may be conservative. The Taliban also 
maintain heroin refining labs throughout Afghanistan. Refined heroin 
is worth much more than raw opium. What's more, in just the last 
year, Afghanistan has become the world's largest grower of marijuana.

So, wouldn't ending the opium and marijuana trade starve the 
insurgency, cripple the Taliban? That sounds easy, but controlling 
narcotics production has proved exceedingly difficult around the 
world. Except in one place - Afghanistan.

Paradoxically enough, when the Taliban were in power, they managed in 
just one year to virtually eliminate the nation's opium-poppy trade 
simply by exhorting the people, warning them that growing poppy was 
contrary to the teachings of Islam - and plowing under the crops of 
anyone who disobeyed.

That was in the spring of 2001, and hundreds of poppy farmers wound 
up in refugee camps or neighboring states that were more forgiving of 
their trade. But then, of course, came Sept. 11, 2001, and the 
American invasion. With the Taliban gone, the opium crops returned. 
Since then, the crops have grown exponentially. Afghanistan now 
produces 90 percent of the world's opium.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice offered the only comment about 
this in recent days, in answer to a question.

"The Afghans have to step up," she said. "They have to step up 
against corruption. They have step up against the cartels."

But the United States shares some responsibility. The Pentagon is 
spending $2.5 billion this year to train and equip the Afghan police. 
But, despite strong objections from the State Department, these 
police are being sent to fight the Taliban - not the drug traffickers.

Ultimately, though, responsibility rests with Hamid Kharzai, the 
Afghan president. Americans quietly express frustration with his 
reluctance to take on the opium farmers. Still, he does seem to 
understand the stakes. I asked him once, on a visit to Kabul, about 
fighting the opium trade.

"If we fail," he averred, "we will fail as a state and eventually 
will fall back into the hands of terrorism."

Karzai may not be a particularly effective president. But no one can 
argue with his prescience.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake