Pablo Goes to Afghanistan
I'm currently engrossed in Mark Bowden's book "Killing Pablo," about the unbelievably bloody and protracted struggle to get rid of the man who just about brought Colombia to its knees, Pablo Escobar.
The US helped in the effort for our own interests, because Bush and Clinton were fighting the "war on drugs" and cocaine was a seriously destructive force for our country.
Now we're trying to eradicate poppy production in Afghanistan, which amounts to our asking poverty-stricken people to do us the favor of decreasing the supply of heroin to our streets. Granted, there are greedy and unethical drug traffickers in Afghanistan, but so few people can afford to feed their families that they often resort to growing poppies as their only means of subsistence, and we are depriving them of that. A lose-lose situation.
The US helped in the effort for our own interests, because Bush and Clinton were fighting the "war on drugs" and cocaine was a seriously destructive force for our country.
Now we're trying to eradicate poppy production in Afghanistan, which amounts to our asking poverty-stricken people to do us the favor of decreasing the supply of heroin to our streets. Granted, there are greedy and unethical drug traffickers in Afghanistan, but so few people can afford to feed their families that they often resort to growing poppies as their only means of subsistence, and we are depriving them of that. A lose-lose situation.
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