Surprised? I'm not... Military opposes spraying poppies

I guess I'll have to start getting banana nut muffins from now on...

 

The military officials, including representatives of the U.S. Central Command, have argued in interagency meetings that attacking Afghanistan's poppy fields is a nonmilitary function that should be left to others.


Ummm, if attacking something isn't a military function, who's job is it exactly?

 

Well guess what? The military works for us, so what if they don't like it.

Do the job and STFU !!

DaDakota

 

Of course the military opposes spraying poppy plants in Afghanistan. It would seriously reduce the money the CIA gets for running drugs, and could quite possibly in turn reduce the military budget.

 

I quite Agree
They are GOVERNMENT ISSUE [what GI stands for]
In Fact I think the WAR ON DRUGS could have a lot
more dropping herbicide on Poppy fields
esp in south and central america

Why kill the dealers at a billion dollars a pop
. . when u can kill the plants. . . . .by the millions for
much less.

U don't need DUE PROCESS to kill a plant.

Rocket River

 

Yeah, it sounds good now, dropping poison, but what if all Afganis die then what? We would be viewed as a country hell-bent on killing all arab's!

 

Our main allies in the Afganistan (Northern Alliance) are drug lords. The military folks are smart enough to realize we don't to alienate them this while some Admin folks are looking for Drug War PR.

The "Drug War" being faught this way is so ludicres, you could destroy all the coca and poppy fields and people would turn to lab made drugs. Stupid, stupid, stupid, I aguess except for PR.

I also second some of the comments of RMTEX/RH.

 

Roundup kills plants, not Arabs.

 

Has it occurred to anyone here that in order to destroy a poppy field the military would have to do two things: 1) modify a munitions platform to spray a defoliant (that is not currently in the military's arsenal - civilian planes are used for that elsewhere), and 2) divert sorely needed combat aircraft from the Al Qaeda / Taliban battle to crop dusting?

Why in the hell can't they bring in some civilian crop dusters to do the job? What, you want to use B-52s to spray defoliants? Excuse the hell out of me, but those B-52s are needed for other - *far more important* purposes. That's the military's only real beef.

No conspiracy theory needed. It's a matter of logistics and force availability.

BTW, I'd far favor buying the warlords off on that one than just spraying defoliants on their crops. Pay them off and offer aid in developing the fields for other purposes (like wheat to feed people, and cotton to clothe them) - that way you create a sustainable economy while destroying the poppies, along with a major source of terrorist income.

Bomb/spray them and they'll just replant the fields again with poppies, and hate the hell out of the people who did it.

 

I think people tend to lump 'military', 'CIA', 'NSA', etc. all into one big lump of unified intentions which I just don't see being there.

I'm willing to entertain the thought that the CIA could involve themselves in the opium trade, but I find it hard to believe that the straight-laced Army & Navy muckety-mucks in this day and age would be too keen on that sort of thing. As hard as it may be to believe, there are people in the military who actually believe strongly in what they're doing and aren't quite as cynical and self-serving as many of you seem to believe.

Another thought -

There are several countries, (Macedonia comes to mind) that produce opium poppies for sale on the legitimate medicinal market and are endosed by the UN. While not as profitable as the black market, I'd imagine that it's quite a bit better than corn.

 

Had that come from me, it would've been ridiculed... Thank you for pointing it out. It is 100% on target.

Other point - we do need some poppy production for medicinal production (morphine, methadone, etc), but I have a strong suspicion that none of Afghan's harvested poppy product is going to industrial or health care-related drug manufacturers at this point... But your point is valid. Perhaps we can let them keep some fields and simply redirect their distribution channels? To legitemate corners, that is? It seems an avenue worth pursuing to me, and a pretty good idea to boot.

Fewer illegal drugs on the streets, a new supply of medical opiates (ehich the entire world sorely needs), and the Afghans get a sustainable - and legitemate - industry going...

 

This drug war stuff really pisses me off. We are always spraying peasants and either fighting narco guerillas or encouraging our militia guys to grow poppies because it is cheaper than putting them all on the payroll, or curtailing civil liberties here at home.

Meanwhile a son of one of my wife's relatives here in TX is a crack addict. His mother has begged the judge to put him in residential treatment, as he is still using and they don't have insurance. I know him. He is basically a good but confused good kid and he is on probation, as it is his first offense. The mother was so desperate that she went to the judge and basically admitted that he is violating his probation by usingThe judge has said the only way to get him into residential treatment without insurance is to revoke the probation and put him in TDC, where recently they have started some treatment programs. What a screwed up way to deal with the drug problem. No help. They'll probably just wait till the problem get worse, he does something stupid, than put him in TDC for many years.

Maybe if Dubya really wants a drug war, he can at least give health insurance to any addicts who want treatment. What a joke! Jeb Bush's daughter can afford residential treatment, so I guess they figure why give a ......about other people's kids?

I wouldn't even mind if it typical Bush fashion one of their heavy campaign contributors was given the national or Texas franchise to make a bundle off the treatment centers the addicts could go to with their health insurance.. Maybe Ken Lay can go into the treatment business. It would be a way for him to rehabilitate himself , too. Ken and Skillern could be sentenced to five years of managing such a program -- just don't let them issue stock.

 

Easy targets for Al-Quaida trained operatives with SAM's and maybe even RPG's.

Who would fly on these flights??