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5/9/13, "U.S. Kicks Drug-War Habit, Makes Peace With Afghan Poppies," Wired, David Axe
"Because of the poppies, the raw material for most of the world’s
heroin, the list of things 1st Lt. Christopher Gackstatter and his 2nd
Platoon can’t do in Sartok is far longer than the list of things they can....
They’re not allowed to actually step foot in Sartok’s many acres of poppy fields or damage the fields in any way. They can’t even threaten to destroy the fields or send in Afghan
troops to burn, plow under or poison the delicate, pastel-colored
flowers.
Nor can they discourage poppy farmers, however gently, from growing
their illicit crop, which is hardier and commands a higher price than
alternatives such as wheat. Poppy cultivation has been illegal in
Afghanistan since 2001 but still represents a full quarter of the
country’s gross domestic product and a major source of revenue for the
Taliban, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year. Many of
the middlemen who buy up raw poppy paste for onward sale to
heroin-producers hail from the insurgent group.
The rules are fairly new and reflect a subtle but profound shift in the
way the U.S. Army thinks about Afghanistan, its people and culture and
conflict. Having furtively experimented with every possible approach to
Afghan poppies since 2001 — from blissfully ignoring them to actively
destroying them and everything in between — today the ground-combat
branch has made peace with poppies, viewing them as a potential good
thing for Afghanistan and the Army."...
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