Don't know if the CWB will get the growers anymore for their crops...

But I am all for sending the entire CWB there...

Here's the best part under the heading of "Protection for farmers",

'This solution will involve arming Afghan farmers, of course, but attack helicopters and AC-130 Spectre gunships may be needed to root out any remaining resistance. Tactical nuclear weapons may be impractical for protection of the crops, but rocket-propelled grenades will be useful if the opposition tries to use armor.'

"Many farmers at the time felt captive to the railways, the line elevator companies, and the Winnipeg Grain Exchange for the delivery, weighing, grading, and pricing of their grain."

So now, they're captive to the CWB instead of the railways. No real change there, except that the railways and elevator companies didn't put them in jail.

Actually, our (ie the West's) policy toward the growing of the opium poppy in Afstan is a major cock-up, and the author's first recommendation makes a lot of sense.

Instead of trying to eradicate the opium poppy, which is one of the very few crops that will grow readily in the soil there, we should be buying the stuff. Outbid the black market (not excessively, just enough to win the "contract") and process the stuff into heroin or other derivatives, all of which are incredibly effective analgesics.

In fact even if we just destroy the raw materials instead of producing useful pain-killers (which would require amending laws in some rational way - something not likely given the natural idiocy of government), we would still end up better off by having the Afghan locals on our side instead of pissing them off by destroying their only source of money to feed their families.

The bigshots should all be shipped out. It will be a challange for them, they can go to China right after they get turfed out of Afganistan.

Bureaucrats...with guns..in Afgan cities...

Oh, the humanity!

Doug's right, obviously. Opium crop, buy it and burn it, or use it, or use half of it and burn the rest, whatever. Buy it.

If we wanted to play REALLY dirty we could buy it and give it away to gangsters in Communist China...

Say, hasn't that been done already?

Just so long as it is done 'for the benefit of all Canadians'.

Here I thought it was going to be something about the catapault again.

Maybe if he built a real big one he could fling wheat board employees all the way to Afghanistan.

The big irony is that this is being promoted on a so-called pacifist, anti-war website.

Apparently George Bush can't be trusted with weapons but Ken Ritter, now that's a different story.

Protect the farmers from the eco-wackos and fataics like AL GORE and keep a eye on your QUADROTRICIKALI THERE ARE TIBBLE ABOUT

Let's get real guys, sometimes, a bushel of wheat is just a bushel of wheat.

50 years from now - the successful and ongoing poppy harvest to sustain raw material for opiate production by pharmacutical companies - will be stable and productive. Marijuana has been included in the harvests, and feed a worldwide demand for high quality medicines to treat glaucoma, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and wasting diseases. Afghan incomes have improved, and as farmers seek more autonomy in world markets....

THE AFGHAN GROWERS BOARD CRUSHES ALL DISSENT.

By using every legal and political means - ethical or not - and ensuring that persons creating their own production remain enslaved to creating value for bureaucrats and gladhanders.

I can see it now:

"Captain! Prepare to repel Wheat Boarders!!"

Hey, wasn't it old CWB Six Gun Sask Ritter at an Ab Wild Rose Convention that said he liked Al Capone's preferred way of doing business?

'You may get what you want with a smile, but you can get it a lot quicker with a gun and a smile' -Big Al

Actually Ritter should be brushing up on international constitutional law which states that when a nation passes a Charter of Rights and Freedoms, it is an obligation and a mandatory duty of all governments to comb thru their individual legislation and make changes to the legislation, so that all (not some, ALL) of the legislation conforms to the cherished Liberal Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Otherwise WTF the point of passing a Charter?

The Compulsory Wheat Board is toast.

Heh.