Afghan poppy harvest is next challenge for U.S. Marines

[unhappycamper]

Afghan poppy harvest is next challenge for U.S. Marines
By Dion Nissenbaum | McClatchy Newspapers
Posted on Tuesday, March 16, 2010

MARJAH, Afghanistan — U.S. Marine Sgt. Brad Vandehei stood on the edge of the small opium poppy field that serves as a central helicopter landing zone for the new military compound that's rising nearby.

"Those are poppies, sir?" Vandehei, 25, of Green Bay, Wis., asked Maj. David Fennell as they gazed at the spiked young plants that should be ready for harvest next month. "Let's burn it down, sir."

Fennell was scoping things out for another reason, however: That morning, the poppy farmer turned up with a dozen neighbors to complain about the Marines transforming his lucrative field into a rural helipad.

The swift American-led military offensive that drove the Taliban from power in this southern Afghan farm belt came at an inopportune time for the area's poppy farmers. That's created a quandary for Marjah's new, U.S.-backed leaders and for the American military as they try to transform this sweltering river valley, whose biggest cash crop is opium poppy, into a tranquil breadbasket.

"The helicopters are landing in my field," the weathered farmer told Fennell as they sat in the dirt outside the Marines' newest forward operating base in Marjah. "You have to stop landing there. Next time, the Taliban will put an IED in the field," an improvised explosive device, the military's term for a homemade bomb.


Rest of article at: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/16/90477/afghan-poppy-harvest-is-next-challenge.html



unhappycamper comment: At least now we can say that the United States Marine Corps is aware there are poppies in Afghanistan.

[mmonk]

1. Have the marines checked with the CIA?

[KharmaTrain]

2. Deja Vu All Over Again...

As long as there's a black market for heroin and opium, there'll be people growing poppies in Afghanistan. Control it, maybe...eradciate it? Never. Too much money...including for the CIA...and that trumps all.

This reminds me of Vietnam where there are short-term gains that look good on the news or "achieve objectives" only to have the Taliban and others move back in after the attention turns to another "hot spot". I don't see a central government coming in to set up services or any real authority over the areas we're supposedly "winning"...it's all a game now...a deadly and counter productive one. Start bringing the troops home!!

[Lyric]

3. Just out of curiosity--where exactly do we get the authority

to burn down private crops on private property in someone else's sovereign nation, just because we have a moral objection to said crop that the people of that nation don't share?

Or is this just one of those things we do because we have really, really big guns and they don't?

[ShortnFiery]

4. The only answer is to decriminalize the drug trade and offer TREATMENT to addicts

and abusers. The DRUG WARS have been created to help finance black markets. It's vile.

[Fumesucker]

6. Alcohol was "decriminalized" during Prohibition, how did that work out?

The possession and consumption of alcohol was never illegal during Prohibition, only the manufacture, importation or sale.

[ret5hd]

5. is the challenge eradication...or HARVEST?

[Webster Green]

7. This really pisses me off.

I love poppies. They are so beautiful, and the resins they produce are truly amazing. There are good medicinal and recreational uses for these crops. :wtf:

[lunatica]

8. How about we put two and two together and come up with an obvious answer

Americans are the biggest consumers of drugs. Americans' government wages war on the countries who supply Americans with drugs. Millions are killed by said Americans' government while the American consumers of said drugs keep buying them. Who exactly are the bad guys here?

Then see the global facts. The poorest countries grow the cash crop (drugs) to sell to the richest industrialized countries while having to dodge Industrialized country's bullets.

I'm willing to bet that some of those soldiers sent in to destroy the poppy and cocaine fields are drugged to the ears while doing it.