US INCREASES ATTACK ON OPIUM TRADE IN AFGHANISTAN
J. Grant Swank, Jr.
"’The military will play a supporting role but one that's very, very large for Afghanistan,’ Lt. Gen. David Barno said in an interview at his Kabul headquarters. ‘The whole police organization will be improved out there across the country.’"
According to the Associated Press, U.S. forces will identify "’key targets that can be hit by Afghan interdiction forces to take down labs, take down the bazaars down there, perhaps eventually to take down some of the key figures if the Afghan government makes that decision,’ Barno said."
The opium trade has been a forthright enemy to democracy planting in Afghanistan. However, a remaking of a nation cannot occur overnight. Therefore, as in New Iraq, time and patience play a major twosome in seeing through local freedoms established.
The liberal mainstream press in America often has taken the stance that the Bush administration should have tackled this mammoth problem in solving it yesterday. However, more level heads have realized that seeing through the present-tense project of putting a new government in place does not eradicate the opium base immediately.
Nevertheless, all along the US presence has known that the opium harvest has to be dealt with aggressively. It was not sidelining the issue. It was attacking the enemy ongoingly and now is stepping up the attack. In the process, grassroots farmers cannot be stirred to irritation so as to turn against the new government nor the US presence. The farmers for years have made their living from the opium trade.
Realizing that it is a delicate balance, the US presence has moved forward carefully. This has been in cooperation with the newly formed politic. Those anti-Bush enthusiasts who demand perfection would have bungled the process if they had been in the driver’s seat. However, the Bush administration has progressed most wisely in a very touchy matter.
The AP reports from Kabul that "the U.S. military will take a major role in training Afghanistan’s police and will provide intelligence and transport for the country's new anti-drug forces, dramatically expanding American efforts against a booming narcotics trade.
"Barno told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the drug issue had risen on the military's agenda because of the waning strength of Taliban-led militants and the taming of Afghanistan's former warlords. . .President Hamid Karzai has vowed to eliminate the cultivation of opium poppies, which has boomed since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
"A counter-narcotics intelligence team to pinpoint targets is already up and running and military helicopters and transport planes are available to carry Afghan anti-drug police, he said. . .(There will also be the establishing of) outposts along Afghanistan's porous borders and training and equipping the guards to intercept smugglers.
"U.S. forces will identify ‘key targets that can be hit by Afghan interdiction forces to take down labs, take down the bazaars down there, perhaps eventually to take down some of the key figures if the Afghan government makes that decision,’ Barno said."
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"’The military will play a supporting role but one that's very, very large for Afghanistan,’ Lt. Gen. David Barno said in an interview at his Kabul headquarters. ‘The whole police organization will be improved out there across the country.’"
According to the Associated Press, U.S. forces will identify "’key targets that can be hit by Afghan interdiction forces to take down labs, take down the bazaars down there, perhaps eventually to take down some of the key figures if the Afghan government makes that decision,’ Barno said."
The opium trade has been a forthright enemy to democracy planting in Afghanistan. However, a remaking of a nation cannot occur overnight. Therefore, as in New Iraq, time and patience play a major twosome in seeing through local freedoms established.
The liberal mainstream press in America often has taken the stance that the Bush administration should have tackled this mammoth problem in solving it yesterday. However, more level heads have realized that seeing through the present-tense project of putting a new government in place does not eradicate the opium base immediately.
Nevertheless, all along the US presence has known that the opium harvest has to be dealt with aggressively. It was not sidelining the issue. It was attacking the enemy ongoingly and now is stepping up the attack. In the process, grassroots farmers cannot be stirred to irritation so as to turn against the new government nor the US presence. The farmers for years have made their living from the opium trade.
Realizing that it is a delicate balance, the US presence has moved forward carefully. This has been in cooperation with the newly formed politic. Those anti-Bush enthusiasts who demand perfection would have bungled the process if they had been in the driver’s seat. However, the Bush administration has progressed most wisely in a very touchy matter.
The AP reports from Kabul that "the U.S. military will take a major role in training Afghanistan’s police and will provide intelligence and transport for the country's new anti-drug forces, dramatically expanding American efforts against a booming narcotics trade.
"Barno told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the drug issue had risen on the military's agenda because of the waning strength of Taliban-led militants and the taming of Afghanistan's former warlords. . .President Hamid Karzai has vowed to eliminate the cultivation of opium poppies, which has boomed since the fall of the Taliban in 2001.
"A counter-narcotics intelligence team to pinpoint targets is already up and running and military helicopters and transport planes are available to carry Afghan anti-drug police, he said. . .(There will also be the establishing of) outposts along Afghanistan's porous borders and training and equipping the guards to intercept smugglers.
"U.S. forces will identify ‘key targets that can be hit by Afghan interdiction forces to take down labs, take down the bazaars down there, perhaps eventually to take down some of the key figures if the Afghan government makes that decision,’ Barno said."
For more: http://conservativeposts.us/ <http://conservativeposts.us/>
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