U.S. Intensifies Campaign to Wipe Out Afghan Economy

Jacob Sullum | April 30, 2009

The New York Times reports that "the Taliban are believed to reap as much as $300 million a year from Afghanistan's opium trade, which now makes up 90 percent of the world's total." That revenue "is enough, the Americans say, to sustain all of the Taliban's military operations in southern Afghanistan for an entire year." The solution: "American commanders are planning to cut off the Taliban's main source of money...by pouring thousands of troops into the three provinces that bankroll much of the group's operations [Helmand, Kandahar and Zabul]." What could go wrong? The story suggests a few causes for concern:

1. Although the Taliban "often fade away when confronted by a conventional army," they "will probably stand and fight" to protect their revenue stream.

2. "The terrain is a guerrilla's dream. In addition to acres of shoulder-high poppy plants, rows and rows of hard-packed mud walls, used to stand up grape vines, offer ideal places for ambushes and defense."  

3. "The opium is tilled in heavily populated areas...The prospect of heavy fighting in populated areas could further alienate the Afghan population."

4. "Among the ways the Taliban are believed to make money from the opium trade is by charging farmers for protection; if the Americans and British attack, the Taliban will be expected to make good on their side of that bargain."

5. Opium poppies are "by far the most lucrative crop an Afghan can farm."

6. "The opium trade now makes up nearly 60 percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product, American officials say."

7. "The country's opium traffickers typically offer incentives that no Afghan government official can: they can guarantee a farmer a minimum price for the crop as well as taking it to market, despite the horrendous condition of most of Afghanistan's roads."

8. "Even if the Americans are able to cut production, shortages could drive up prices and not make a significant dent in the Taliban's profits." 

As in the case of prohibition-related violence in Mexico, the Obama administration sees a problem created by the war on drugs—in this case, subsidies for insurgents and terrorists—as a reason to intensify the war on drugs. This makes even less sense in the context of Afghanistan, where the U.S. is trying to win enough hearts and minds to defeat the Taliban and leave behind a reasonably stable government. I'm not sure that's a realistic goal, but it is certainly undermined by a campaign to wipe out most of the country's meager economy. Compared to foreigners who blow up your houses while trying to destroy your livelihood, the Taliban's protection racket looks pretty good.

More on the never-ending, never-succeeding crackdown on Afghan opium here.

Comments

|4.30.09 @ 4:01PM|#

Jesus, can't we just stop this stupid drug war? I can't think of any sillier government policy, and I've never used any illegal drugs. And I'd beat my kids if they started using them. How can the 90% of the population who has used or does use them support this crap? Are we all taking crazy pills?

juan|10.20.09 @ 11:47AM|#

bitch shut the fuck up

|4.30.09 @ 4:02PM|#

Are we all taking crazy pills?

Well we would be...

|4.30.09 @ 4:04PM|#

Nah, crazy pills must be legal.

phalkor|4.30.09 @ 4:08PM|#

Really, you'd beat your kids if you caught them rolling E or smoking a joint? I'd always figured I could find out clever ways to punish my children besides hitting them.

This is what happens when you get caught
"Awww man, my dad busted me last night"
"What'd he do?"
"He took my entire stash and my brand new bong!"
"Dag, yo"

|4.30.09 @ 4:09PM|#

doom
DoooM
DOOOOM

|4.30.09 @ 4:11PM|#

My wife and I are tyrants, plain and simple.

phalkor|4.30.09 @ 4:13PM|#

Oh yeah. on topically jacob makes a very good case for why it is okay to steal drugs from your children, but not okay to raid Afghan farmers. My kids know not to ambush me when I try to eradicate their poppy fields, else they get the nerve gas.

|4.30.09 @ 4:16PM|#

It's been said before--why not let the poor places legalize drugs, etc.? If we did that here, Michigan, Mississippi, and so on would be done with their economic woes in a matter of months.

|4.30.09 @ 4:19PM|#

My wife and I are tyrants, plain and simple.

A sensible precaution in a world where someone like Episiarch exists.

|4.30.09 @ 4:20PM|#

SugarFree,

Precisely. Episiarch, as I've informed him, is the anti-role model for the Libertate family. If he didn't exist, I'd have to make him up.

|4.30.09 @ 4:21PM|#

A sensible precaution in a world where someone like Episiarch exists.

The more you disapprove, the easier it is for me. Thanks, dad!

|4.30.09 @ 4:23PM|#

Episiarch,

Oh, let's not revive that argument again. I can destroy you and those like you with a thought. For I was once like you, long ago.

|4.30.09 @ 4:24PM|#

. . .only with fewer illegal substances and substantially less perversion.

|4.30.09 @ 4:25PM|#

I can destroy you and those like you with a thought.

"His name shall bring death to all those that oppose the righteous."

|4.30.09 @ 4:28PM|#

Look, yes, I have banged hundreds of broads--internationally--but know this: I wrap my rascal TWO times 'cause I like it to be joyless and without sensation, as a way of punishing supermodels.

|4.30.09 @ 4:29PM|#

But 'tis enough. He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him. Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me.

That's just if he gets near my kids; otherwise, he's a great guy and not an insidious pestilence upon this Earth.

Episiarch,

They deny you their pudsey bear?

|4.30.09 @ 4:30PM|#

Do you call it a "rascal" because of all the old people who ride it?

NTTAWWT

SpongePaul|4.30.09 @ 4:31PM|#

yeah lets make the elderly suffer. just an FYI the opiates used to make all our favorite painkillers from vicodin up to morphine etc all come from turkey and afganastan. we are only hurting ourselves with this stupid policy

|4.30.09 @ 4:34PM|#

Why don't we just take the money we're spending on the military stuff and buy up the land where the opium is growing? If we simply must meddle?

|4.30.09 @ 4:35PM|#

You know, FrBunny, you're like the A-bomb. Everyone's laughing, having a good time, and you show up BOOM! Everything's dead!

|4.30.09 @ 4:36PM|#

That's just if he gets near my kids

ProL, don't let your daughters grow up to be models.

Tacos mmm...|4.30.09 @ 4:38PM|#

We don't even have to "legalize" it - there's plenty of demand for the product already through accepted pharmaceutical channels. We just need to start buying it from Afghanistan ourselves.

|4.30.09 @ 4:39PM|#

Dammit. I had a picture and everything.

[kicks rock... goes back to the uncool table]

Zeb|4.30.09 @ 4:41PM|#

Or just buy up all of the opium since their is a fucking shortage of morphine in the world.

Seems to me that that strategy would be more effective in limiting the illicit opiate supply as well as having the added bonus of not alienating half of the people in Afghanistan.

|4.30.09 @ 4:44PM|#

Models? I think that's a euphemism of some sort. Like "fucking steamroller."

Speaking of that, I like to believe that Episiarch is actually Eliot Spitzer.

|4.30.09 @ 4:44PM|#

I just slowly shake my head, dumbfounded by the idiocy of the drug warriors.

Slightly off topic, it appears my gut instinct immediately after 9/11 was correct. Go in, topple the fuck up anything that looks like modern (post 1900) technology, depose the government and leave with the admonition "we can do this any fucking time we like".

|4.30.09 @ 4:47PM|#

Speaking of that, I like to believe that Episiarch is actually Eliot Spitzer.

Don't be absurd; I'm vastly better looking than that asshole.

"Okay, I'm sorry, Candy. I guess we're not in America. I guess now, I'm not allowed to pay for sex with pennies."

|4.30.09 @ 4:50PM|#

So, all we need to do then is end the drug war, and plant poppies in Nebraska instead of buying smack from the Taliban. Everybody wins!

-jcr

|4.30.09 @ 4:51PM|#

Hey, liberaltarians! How's that Obama thing working out for you? Good thing the War on Substances is over!

|4.30.09 @ 4:52PM|#

J sub D,

There's a certain logic to that. Skip the occupation; just make it clear that we're perfectly willing to destroy the military capacity of the grossly offending nation.

This strategy wouldn't be my first option, but I like it better than nation building, occupation, etc. Rightly or wrongly, we were insanely scary after our rapid victories in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sticking around just made us look weak and resulted in much more death and destruction than the invasions did.

|4.30.09 @ 4:53PM|#

I'm vastly better looking than that asshole.

That's not saying much, dude. I knew there had to be a reason there aren't any pictures of you from the waist up on the internet.

|4.30.09 @ 4:58PM|#

I just like the idea of it. The real Eliot Spitzer as a libertarian and openly fond of chemistry and hot whores. And a fanboy.

|4.30.09 @ 5:00PM|#

I knew there had to be a reason there aren't any pictures of you from the waist up on the internet.

"Hello ladies, say hello to Goliath. We had to order special elastic pants for him on the internet."

|4.30.09 @ 5:00PM|#

You know, what if we moved Chrysler to Afghanistan?

|4.30.09 @ 5:12PM|#

"Can someone please just shut off all the sex? I'm starting to chafe here."

Michael P.|4.30.09 @ 5:18PM|#

I have been in favor of (full) legalization for as long as I can remember, but there is one thing I don't grasp about arguments against the War on Drugs using the Afghanistan situation as an example. What do people honestly expect to happen if we were to suddenly stop the offensive on opium farming? Do they feel that it would suck the profit out of the crop and subsequently bleed the Taliban of their financing? We can win all the "hearts and minds" we want, but the Taliban will still want us just as dead and will continue to fund the means to see that happen unabated. How would this approach help the US and coalition forces achieve their objective?

|4.30.09 @ 5:28PM|#

So, can I expect to see all the anti-war types dust off their placards and giant puppet heads to protest this escalation?

cuernimus|4.30.09 @ 5:40PM|#

We can win all the "hearts and minds" we want, but the Taliban will still want us just as dead and will continue to fund the means to see that happen unabated. How would this approach help the US and coalition forces achieve their objective?

I would think that giving the Taliban $300 million a year would cause less harm than trying to completely eradicate 60% of a country's GDP. You would also get the added benefit of having a culture of farmers, who are generally much more peaceful than a culture of pissed of nomads.

Paul|4.30.09 @ 5:50PM|#

What we need are new ideas. These drugs are clearly a problem. Some sort of intense action against their production and distribution might be in order. We need to have the equivalent of a declaration of war. A war on drugs, if you will.

|4.30.09 @ 5:53PM|#

Why don't we take the entire Taliban to Vegas and show them a good time? I bet the whole business would be solved if we did that.

Paul|4.30.09 @ 6:00PM|#

So, can I expect to see all the anti-war types dust off their placards and giant puppet heads to protest this escalation?

I must say that the anti-war movement has done a lot for the papier-mâché head industry. I wonder if the industry will collapse now that Obama is in the white house? Methinks a bailout could be in order.

Craig|4.30.09 @ 7:12PM|#

Isn't it bad enough that they're intensifying their campaign to wipe out the American economy?

mark|4.30.09 @ 8:23PM|#

God this could not be more simple. Buy the opium directly from the farmers and make morphine. Pay for the crops with stamps or coupons or whatever, so they can't be used to buy weapons. Sending in troops will cost billions per week, rather than millions per year.

Where are all the sane people? At the very least, where the fuck is the anti-war lobby?

jtuf|4.30.09 @ 9:23PM|#

Whether or not you think troop presence in Afghanistan is justified, we can all agree that sending troops to destroy poppy fields is a horrible idea. This is just plain pitiful. We have top experts in the social sciences advicing policy makers on how to win hearts and minds, and they can't figure out that paying former insurgents combined with destroying the crops of peaceful farmers is going to incentivize insurgency.

|5.1.09 @ 12:53AM|#

"So, can I expect to see all the anti-war types dust off their placards and giant puppet heads to protest this escalation?"

Chicken-hawk? How dare you besmirch our Dear Grofaz with such ad hominems - have you no shame?!

bill|5.1.09 @ 12:56AM|#

What really pisses me off about the whole situation, is that they are growing all this opium instead of that killer Afhgani hash we used to get back in the 80's!

|5.1.09 @ 9:32AM|#

God this could not be more simple. Buy the opium directly from the farmers and make morphine.

Are you serious? When has adding a customer ever decreased supply? The whole campaign is retarded, but to suggest we can fix it by buying up all the product is pretty naive.

|5.1.09 @ 10:44AM|#

There's a certain logic to that. Skip the occupation; just make it clear that we're perfectly willing to destroy the military capacity of the grossly offending nation.

Unfortunately, its nearly impossible to destroy the capacity of a willing state to sponsor or harbor terrorists. Destroying their military capacity is irrelevant; Afghanistan had no military capacity to speak of. What has to be destroyed is the willingness of the state to tolerate terrorists.

mark|5.1.09 @ 8:54PM|#

FrBunny, yes it's naive, forgive me, but I just feel like something is terribly wrong when you have a situation where you're going to spend bazillions of dollars and it will have exactly the wrong effect. I guess it makes me feel like there's something that could be done which would have exactly the right effect (winning hearts and minds). Oh well, it's weekend time! No more thinking about that pesky Taliban!

|5.1.09 @ 11:10PM|#

""What has to be destroyed is the willingness of the state to tolerate terrorists."""

I'd bet some Russian General said the same thing in the early 1980s.

|5.1.09 @ 11:42PM|#

http://www.villagevoice.com/2009-03-25/news/afghaniscrewed-how-i-spent-my-fall-vacation

|5.4.09 @ 3:33AM|#

"I just slowly shake my head, dumbfounded by the idiocy of the drug warriors."

I'm afraid these people are not just stupid. Dangerouse, evil morons would be a more apt discription.

|5.8.09 @ 12:51PM|#

Cato has already done an event on this problem. Nobody listened then so I don't see why anybody would listen now.

|5.8.09 @ 12:52PM|#

I meant to include a link to the event page in my comment. Here is the link to the event titled Global Terror's Central Front: Pakistan and Afghanistan.