Australian SAS units have made a chilling discovery; Euro -trained mercenaries are popping up in Afghanistan… and they’re not on our side. The presence of Europeans fighting for the bad guys should force us to examine one factor in this war that has been, perhaps, disregarded:
Suddenly the significance of the emaciated drug addict in Saskatoon’s west end has changed. The poison she injects or swallows, usually in the form of heroin or morphine, now has a 92% chance of originating in Afghanistan, and the cash she pays for the drug finds its way indirectly into the bullets, mortars, and IED devices that are killing Canadian troops.
Sooooo,.. Vancouver's Safe Injection Site is on the Taliban's and Taliban-Jack's side. Let me get this straight. Taliban Jack and Canada's MSM, by and large, support SI sites, sort of a reward-failure thing. The SIS buys their cocaine from Taliban types in Afganistan. The $Billions$ are used to fight and kill Canadian soldiers. Soldiers that are helping the Afgan people in their effort build schools and free Afgan Women from Slavery.
What is wrong with this picture ?? Am I wrong ??
As long as the drugs are purchased on the street; you are completely correct.
This has been a well known revenue source of the Talibs....the real question to ask is why the US policy in the area ( set by CIA foeald ops) will not allow Canadians to destroy the poppy production????
The answer to this question has a direct tie to not only our ability to win this conflict...but opens the question of why we are taking orders from US policy agencies.
Our generals know what is best to win this conflict and they have consistantly cited the poppy production as being a road block to victory....ask the CIA why our commanders concerners have been overridden by CIA policy in the region?
" The SIS buys their cocaine from Taliban"
Aren't we talking about poppies not coca?
Alternate earning options must be developed, otherwise poppy farmers simply join the Taliban.
Its a looong road ahead. = TG
Poppy = opium, heroin, morphine = Afghanistan
Coca = Cocaine, Crack = Columbia
These poppy fields have to stop. Not to mention,
Jack.
In previous discussions about opium production it was pointed out that poppies were one of the few profitable crops for the farmers. They will keep growing them until improvements are made to the infrastructure so that bulkier and more perishable crops can be delivered to market.
Western governments should buy the poppies at the source, this would also reduce the supply back home.
I know this would cause panic on East Hastings but the current programs certainly haven’t been much of a success.
Poppies mean the farmers eat... no poppies, they starve. At this point there is no alternative to the poppy crop... talk about a circular rat F*&^.
Development, Drug War, and Taliban War, have all got to be prosecuted at once and with incredible dedication.... here and over there. Hands up all those who think Lollipop Jack is the man for the job.
You simply pay a higher stipend to not grow poppies. You offer that with free skills training. Money is going to have to flow into Afghanistan infrastructure and alternate employment for rural men.
This time around everyone, Canada, Europe, whatever is left of the decent world, needs to fund this. US taxpayers shouldn't have to be always footing the bill disproportionately. Every country has high maintenance heroin addicts.
aaaaaaand speaking of goings on in the ME:
lookie what one mr Bob Woodward (watergate fame)
has to say about george dubya and members of his entourage in his latest book 'state of denial':
Among Woodward's allegations:
Former White House chief of staff Andrew Card twice tried to persuade President Bush to fire Rumsfeld, in 2004 and 2005.
Former National Security Council staff member Robert Blackwill pressed for more troops in Sept. 2003, but was ignored by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. "The bottom line: we need more troops in Iraq," Blackwill wrote in a lengthy memo to Rice. He suggested 40,000 more soldiers.
Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander for the Middle East, complained to the C.I.A. director that the war was not going as well as Rumsfeld claimed. "These bastards in Washington have no idea what they're doing," Woodward quoted Abizaid as saying in one meeting.
Despite escalating violence, Woodward quotes Bush as saying in Nov. 2003 that "I don't want anyone in the cabinet to say it is an insurgency. I don't think we are there yet."
At one point, Rumsfeld and Rice were on such poor terms that the defence secretary refused to return her phone calls, until Bush intervened.
After former Secretary of State Colin Powell was removed from the administration in 2004, he said Rumsfeld should also leave. Powell apparently told a White House official: "If I go, Don should go."
Just two months before the 9/11 attacks, on July 10, 2001, CIA director George Tenet met with Rice to express concern over a possible impending attack, but later felt Rice did not take his warning seriously.
When the chief weapons inspector David Kay suggested the Iraq government may have had the ability to manufacture weapons of mass destruction without actually building any, C.I.A. Deputy Director John McLaughlin said: "Don't tell anyone this. This could be upsetting. Be very careful. We can't let this out until we're sure."
Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, who led the first Iraq Postwar Planning Office, told Rumsfeld in June 2003 the U.S. had made three initial mistakes in Iraq: removing Baath Party members from government positions; dismantling the Iraqi military; and, the dismissal of an eager interim Iraqi leadership group.
In May, the intelligence division of the Joint Chiefs of Staff circulated a secret document predicting that violence will continue for the rest of this year in Iraq and increase in 2007.
etc etc. more to come!! you can be sure of that.
“Development, Drug War, and Taliban War, have all got to be prosecuted at once and with incredible dedication....”
Well Mr. Smartypants pull up a Lazyboy recliner and make yourself comfortable while waiting for all parts of your incredible plan to come together.
(There is still some room for your Lazyboy right next to all those people that are waiting to do anything about the Islamofascists until things get settled in Israel or the “problem” of CO2 emissions are wrestled to the ground or a bombing takes place in Canada)
In the mean time I say buy up the crop at the source. How much do think that would cost in comparison to the huge amounts currently spent at this end of the problem?
If you don’t like the devastatingly hurtful term “Mr. Smartypants” lay off the use of “rat F*&^”
“These poppy fields have to stop. Not to mention, Jack.”
That’s where it all started. Jack Layton’s rejection by The Poppy Family to become a member of the 60’s folk group has led him to this twisted dream of getting close to the Taliban.
Which way you goin' Jacky?
Can Olivia go too?
Which way you goin' Jacky?
We won’t go with you?
Not gonna miss you, Jacky
And though I'm trying
I'm laughing so bad, Jacky
I can't help crying
When will they finaly spray those poppy fields with out harming the people?
Farmers in Afganistan grow poppies because it is the best paying crop. Ok. So why don't Canadian farmers grow drug crops on a large scale too ?? Like, maybe because it's illegal. Not to mention it's also immoral to ruin kid's lives.
Could a few(lots) Ag-spray planes wipe out the Afgan poppy crop ?? Grow food crops instead. Choke off the Telaban $$, allow Afgans to take back their country from the Drug Lords, make it safer for our troops, reduce the supply of life-ruining heroin on Canada's streets. I may be missing something. Too simplistic ?? Oh, ya. Can just see the Media's headlines;
CANADIAN TROOPS ACT LIKE TERRORISTS, DESTROY AFGAN FARMER'S WAY OF LIFE
The solution is simple: do what socialists do for farmers here in their controlled markets...pay them not to plant poppies...if they do burn the crop and haul the offender off to the corwbar hotel at Gitmo for some agricultural re educating.
People...let's not wimp out here..those poppies are a weapon of war...they cause nothing but human devistain and the feidal lords growing them and refining them know damn well what they are used for.
in the short tem irradicating the poppy crop with put the war lords out of business and starve both them and the Taliban....I don't se any option other than the navel gasing worries about the fate of the scum who grow and process heroine's core crop...summon! they deal in human misery...the best thing for the war and our western societies would be the iradication of the heroine poppy crops.
And if the entire Poppy Crop was successfully destroyed and peace returned to the Afganis, great ? Not so fast, because if one, even just ONE acre of wheat was mistakenly destroyed ?? You got it;
CANADIAN CHEMICAL TERRORIST PILOTS DESTROY AFGAN WHEAT CROP
Cal: Funny post, considering I agree with you... what made you think I was a Laytonite?
Buying up the Poppies:
http://www.embassymag.ca/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/2006/september/20/dyer/
Just a thought in regards to the statements above about wiping out the poppy fields why don't we just wipe out the market. Drug users are depending on the poppy crop and also on the benevolence of the Canadian left to 'enable' them soooo lets take care of them first and then we will have eliminated the need for the poppies. Short of execution for possession of drugs that seem to work in other countries how about a 21st century 'Botany Bay' somewhere north of Baffin Island. Ship all drug users there for...say five years if they pass blood tests after that then they are allowed back into 'Lower Canada'. We would solve a lot of problems this way, ie. new transport planes for the armed forces (drug users would be parachuted out over Baffin Island, no need to built landing strips) we would solve the sovereignty problem of the north, and we'd save countless billions by not opening safe injection sights. Comments anyone!!
All Afghanistan needs is the equivalent of the Canadian Wheat Board--could be called the Afghanistan Poppy Board, and that would solve all the problems for the poppy farmers--just like the CWB has done for the Western farmer--stable income, thriving market, no grain left in the field--NOT! The only one that makes money from the CWB is the government--so that would be the answer--the Afghan government would be rolling in dough and the poppy farmer would divisify to get out from under the thumb of the government Board.
WHOA! We need to forget about eradicating heroin production and pay them to grow it. Right now, France produces the majority of the Western worlds heroin, USED FOR TREATMENT OF PAIN, and they cannot produce enough medical heroin for the rest of the planet (read third world).
The solution is simple folks. Apply capitalistic theory and buy every scrap of heroin those boys in Afganistan can grow. It will be much cheaper to buy the whole shebang than pay for the enormous failure of trying to eradicate it. Furthermore, once you have bought the production, the Western countries who have bought the dope can either donate it to third world hospitals, or even SELL IT! Turn a financial disaster into a profitable operation while simultaneously keeping Afgan farmers happy and Afgan warlords unhappy!
Man, you right-wingnuts are so full of it. What drives the drug trade is profits. What drives drug profits is prohibition. What drives prohibition is the WAR ON DRUGS. What drives the WAR ON DRUGS is right-wing hypocrisy.
maryjane: What drives the drug trade is people who are dumb enough to take drugs, followed by other people who are dumb enough to give the first bunch of dummies a 'safe' place to shoot up.
I listened to Christopher Hitchens on Hugh Hewitt (as I recall) about 3 weeks ago. He opined that the U.S. should buy the Afghan crop, and use it to distill whatever pharmaceuticals modern medicine gets from it already. Apparently, Turkey is contracted by the American government to grow the stuff for distribution to American drug companies (I stand to be corrected on that last sentence; I seem to remember Hitchens saying it). Only problem is, the growers would THEN be extorted by the Taliban to hand the money over anyway. The one flaw in his argument seemed to me to be that the Taliban et al who commission these growers to grow the junk just couldn't be remunerating them all that much. This all got me to thinkin'...
Perhaps a little bit of Mommy State might go a LONG way in Afghanistan. Here's what I mean. Dole out plots of land to REGISTERED growers, and pay them a wage (a few hundred American dollars per month? Surely the thugs who take the crop now don't pay these poppy growers any more than that... hence the FABULOUS markups in "the street trade". Just ensure the growers get a really nice "pay raise"). If the Taliban extort those poor growers, what'll it net them? A few million per year? Hell, they'll blow it all on Toyotas and ammunition, and at the same time make a bunch of enemies out of the "simple folk" who are just trying to get along. Any unregistered growers with unregistered fields, and it's agent orange for THAT lot.
Does this make any sense at all?
I'd buy the crops up; and fight the drug war at home; and continue to wage war on the Taliban. All three at once... and mercilessly.
Legalizing Cocaine and Opium-drugs has been tried in Europe... does anyone know how successful they've been in getting people off the crap, and are they successful at preventing new addicts. I keep thinking of Train Spotting.
How much do we spend on health care for addicts, much more than for smokers I think. Probably more than the poppies would cost. For years I have been saying that our drug addicts, recreational users and supporters of SI sites are killing our soldiers. Posted that stmt in a Vancouver paper and boy, did I get blasted. Same from TO readers.
Congrats to all those in TO that turned out for the rally.
maryjane-get real
Step 1
penny, I agree with you but I think the Western world should seize the Islamofacist, drug dealers, illegal arms dealers, etc bank accounts in our respective countries.
Step 2
Buy the crop from the farmers at a really good price and pay them to harvest it using the funds garnered from the bank accounts.
Step 3
Burn it.
Step 4
Repeat as necessary.
So, debris, are you advocating prohibition of all drugs, or just a hypocritical war on some drugs? Like Dubya and Harper....
We should do a prisoner exchange. Talibani Jack for 1/3rd Western hostage. Ooops, forget it/ = TG
This month the Republicans tried to kill a Democratic bill that will provide specific funding cripple the Taliban drug trade.
http://tinyurl.com/zox7u
Buy poppy bulbs?
Exchange poppy crop for the foreign aid now going to Afghanistan.
Every bushel of bulbs fed to the incinerator, [at the military base], gets one bushel of foreign aid.
Instant pay-off. No middle men. No hi-jacking. No machine guns. Big heroine cut-back. = TG
Why do junkies not support our troops?
Any white guy found fighting for the muslims shouls be summarily shot in shot.
That's it.
No excuses. No nuances. That will raise the price for their services and make them leave the battle field.
PS: Oh yeah, cuts into Talib weapons purchasing. . and,
Yields some crime relief in the hoods where it gets flogged. = TG
Maryjane: Neither, I've got mixed feelings on the issue and see enourmous problems with each approach... I'm not as sure as you on this ... It's wonderful that you know exactly what to do and exactly what the fall out will be... congratulations.
Sawed Off said.. Why do junkies not support our troops?
Posted by: little_sawed_off_twit at September 30, 2006 06:26 PM
Answer:
Junkies go to state pens.
Junkies join Muslim groups and causes.
Ex-cons, [junkies], on an LA gas-bar robbery rampage were finally tracked down through a dropped cell-phone.
Govt. buildings bomb target plans, explosives and weapons were found at the cell-phone address.
The cons attended a mosque in near by SanDiego.
Sawed Off is asking all the right questions.
= TG
Buy all the Afgan poppies/heroin at a real good $Billion$ price ?? Legally, and burn them. All they can produce. Every year ?? I would imagine there are lots of places in this old world that can raise poppies. Lucrative, plus, plus. Then we would have the same problem in ?? India ? Bangledesh ? Tibet ? Maybe even the Ontario soybean farmer would get into the act. Would be politically INcorrect to favour one country's farmers over another.
As mentioned earlier, I would also support buying the poppy crops and trying to get positive use from it.
I would also support rebuilding the growing of grapes.
At one point Afghanistan had 80,000 hectares of grapes growing for table grapes and raisins.
Buy the poppies and gradually switch to more grapes.
(I attended the troop support rally in Calgary today.)
This is not new, foreign westerners have been there since before 9/11.
hate to break this too you folks, but maryjane has a solid lock on logic on this one. Prohibition simply doesn't work. Want proof that prohibition never works? Why, just look at handguns in Toronto. See?
Oh, OK, the drug thing.
Karzai admitted this week that this is the shame of his nation, and that the fight against the poppy fields is a major priority in defeating Al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Karzai impressed me all to heck, at the White House this week when he asked a reporter questioning the policy of fighting terrorism overseas as to whether she remembered the innocentpeople diving, from 80 something stories at the WTC, to there deaths, rather than being burned slowly and very, very painfully to a crisp...., STONE COLD SILENCE from the press.
Hoax Aware, I usually agree with your reasoning but you are running too fast and far with this one.
The benefit for incinerating poppy bulbs is unique to Afghanistan.
Any other government would have their foreign aid trimmed proportional to any increase in dope cultivation.
Sudden stop! eh? = TG
You gotta trust people to make their own choices, you've got to trust liberty. That is the ONLY rationalization for being in Afghanistan in the first place. If you don't believe in freedom, what in the hell are we doing over there?
Robert in Calgary,
I recognize what you did today. Troop support rally in Calgary. Excellent!
Pat on the back for you and others from this little berg on Vancouver Island. = TG
Too bad Maryjane, your whining carries no weight here . . . try a leftist site. = TG
Unique to Afgan ?? Maybe, but what about the Oil For Food Sacandal ?? Sactions BY the UN were BROKEN by the UN. To help Saddam.
Right again maryjane. Freedom. Trust people. For example, let a bar owner decide whether he will permit smoking in his establishment. Trust him. Trust the homeowner that wants to buy a handgun to protect the family and it's possessions.
I couldn't agree with you more maryjane.
Believe it or not, the thought of spelling out that the UN have no license to this under any circumstance did in fact come to mind.
It would make the Oil for food fiasco look like a Carter peanut fest.
Too obvious. I dropped the thought. = TG
Whats the differnce between this and oil? They both support terrorism.
Here, you will love this . . .
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2006/09/thousands-rally-in-lebanon-against.html
= TG