Afghanistan Mulls Herbicide In Drug War (Bush Admin Pushing For)

[RamboLiberal]

http://kdka.com/topstories/topstories_story_274200758.html

With profits from this spring's record opium crop fueling a broad Taliban offensive, Afghan authorities say they are considering a once unthinkable way to deal with the scourge: spraying poppy fields with herbicide.

Afghans including President Hamid Karzai are deeply opposed to spraying the crop. After nearly three decades of war, Western science and assurances can do little to assuage their fears of chemicals being dropped from airplanes.

But U.S. officials in Kabul and Washington are pushing for it. And on Thursday the country's top drug enforcement official said he would contemplate spraying opium crops — even with airborne crop-dusters — if other efforts fail to cut the size of the coming year's crop.

"This year, we'll wait and see how it goes. Next year, the 2008 season, we will consider it," said Lt. Gen. Mohammed Daoud Daoud on the sidelines of an anti-poppy gathering in Jalalabad, the ancient and verdant capital of Nangahar province, once the heart of Afghanistan's poppy belt.

[Nostradammit]

1. Why would an international drug cartel want to destroy their own product?

I seriously doubt Bushco would ever spray herbicide.

Muslimicide I could believe, but they ain't gonna hurt their precious poppies.

[sweetheart]

7. Like OPEC, to drive up the price

The drugs war requires scarcity as trending street prices drop every year,
so the cartel needs to prop up the price.

[OKthatsIT]

13. Yeah Mexican Elite would love that!!

Geez...when are people going to wake up?

[Nostradammit]

18. I could see that

Whatever the case, it's sad that nothing they do can be taken at face value.

[sweetheart]

24. it can always, however be taken at economic value

As long as there is a demand, there will be a supply;
and given that so many drugs users are actually poor who
can't afford medical drugs and doctors, by denying the poor
fair medical care, through failed economic policy, republicanism
has created a side effect of systemic drugs addiction, as people
seek to cope with the stresses of its deadening lack of heart.

By keeping drugs illegal, we knowingly keep a market unregulated,
and perpetrate a heinous crime against the freedom of our own youths
who can understandably have difficulty in our bloodthirsty lustful
society. If all drugs were just not anything special, and people
could do whatever, then people could get the fuck out of each other's
faces and we could have some peace from the police.

Is there a market for illegal Aspirin? I can make some of it from willow
bark, and there could be a huge market from mexico to smuggle willow bark,
but there isn't, is there. Nosirree, because willow bark is legal, and
aspirin is legal, and people who take it, and need it for their conditions,
are able to get safe dosages like they want, and nosey nosers don't belong
in other people's lives; a perverse invastion of privacy.

[Nostradammit]

26. sweetheart for president!

:toast:

[XemaSab]

2. It doesn't address the underlying issue

that farming such a lucrative cash crop is the best option for many of these people.

I dunno if you can grow cotton in the same fields, but maybe reducing American cotton subsidies could be part of a REAL solution. :shrug:

[silverweb]

3. It's a subterfuge.

"But U.S. officials in Kabul and Washington are pushing for it."

Wanna know who's really pushing for it? Herbicide and GM seed manufacturers like Monsanto and Bayer.

Herbicides will kill the opium crop, but will also kill food crops. That little problem will be solved by the offer of GM seeds that are resistant to the herbicides. Farmers will then prohibited as part of the purchase contract from saving seeds from previous crops for planting, but will be obliged to buy new seeds each season from the GM seed provider.

We've already done this to farmers in Iraq.

[bullimiami]

8. spray roundup (agent orange updated). sell roundup ready GM seeds.

change laws to allow only buying new seeds each year and give a monopoly to the ag giants.

profit, profit, profit.

[mom cat]

11. LOL! Even my cynacism had not gone that far!

[silverweb]

15. That's how I see it.

From things I've read, we've already done it to many American and Iraqi farmers, and we're trying to do it in places like Colombia.

One of the most insidious parts in this is the prohibition against saving seed from previous plantings, an ancient agricultural tradition. The obvious goal is to ensure ongoing sales of GM seed, but it will also effectively wipe out natural species varieties (aka biodiversity).

[Jacobin]

25. That would be what they are doing

[SenorSanchez]

21. I highly doubt the US would spray food crops

Opium is a huge problem in our society. Heroin destroys lives. I thought Islamic law prohabited Muslims from doing drugs or alcohol.

[silverweb]

23. That's not what I said.

I said they'd spray the opium -- excuse me, the poppy fields -- (at least in part), which contaminates the soil and affects food crops, as well; then they'll push for the use of GM seeds that are resistant to the herbicide used.

[KT2000]

4. Douse the populataion too?

Guess the Afghan people do not have enough problems. Now they will have to deal with herbicide exposure in their air, food and water.

[Divernan]

20. Rumsfeld will promise precision, pinpoint spraying.

If the damn winds don't cooperate, well, that's just collateral damage, for goodness sake!

Not enough that the population is exposed to Depleted Uranium - now we can throw more toxic chemicals into their land, air and water!

[OneBlueSky]

5. guess polluting the country with depleted uranium wasn't enough . . .

to satisfy their blood lust . . . might as well add some DDT into the mix, just to make sure that NO future generations of Afghanis survive and thrive . . .

[Bigmack]

6. Those Afghan farmers...

... just might shoot at the planes dusting their crops.

The warlords just might not be in accord with the Mayor of Kandahar and his US puppeteers about the war on drugs.

[GeorgeGist]

9. So there's a glut of opium this season...

perhaps the '2008 season' will be better for the sellers.

[RedEarth]

10. Agent Orange all over again..........Veitnam revisited

[liberalmike27]

12. Paraquat

They didn't learn anything from the spraying of Mexican crops with Paraquat. No telling how many of us have been poisoned by our government spraying pot fields with Paraquat, and have die prematurely. This is just going to make it even worse for drug users, though it is hard to believe something can be worse than being addicted to Heroin, and probably poison a lot of other folks, like spraying to coca fields in Columbia does to natives. There are kids with blotches on their skin by the US poisoning from the sky. This is just another area fertile with people who hate the US, yet another action that we take to make future terrorists, who will give their all to attack us.

Our government has gotten entirely out of hand, and often does stupid things, rather than leave well-enough alone. Iraq is the best example. Even his father GHWB knew that Iraq would be more problematic without Saddam in power. Leave it to dumbo-son to prove it.

[sofa king]

14. They'll never do it, so don't worry.

Part of the US federal government opposes heroin trafficking. Another part of it relies heavily on it for its funding. You can guess which one is going to win out over the other.

[silverweb]

17. Sure they will... in part and with much fanfare.

The goal isn't to really wipe out the poppy fields but to appear to be eliminating them, while using that cover to establish GM seed producers in the area (see posts #3 ff).

The propaganda value will be that we are eradicating the horrors of heroin (while still profiting from trafficking in it) and helping local food production (while enslaving local farmers to AgriCorp and establishing GM crops).

[IndianaGreen]

16. Spraying crops has worked so well in Colombia!

All it will do is add thousands to the ranks of the Taleban.

[Megahurtz]

19. Spraying with Airplanes.

Yeah, the Bush Administration already has a lot of practice with that one. :sarcasm:

[warrens]

22. If they all want to die REAL young, go ahead

Without opium, the country would have no income. The warlords would take Kabul apart and hang every member of government, never mind the Taliban.