Asia Security
Monitor
No. 84, June 7, 2004 Opium crops proliferate;
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| May 30: More than two years after the fall of the Taliban, the Bush Administration lacks a strategy to eliminate opium crops, which continue to break harvest records, reports the Washington Times. General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has reported to U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that al Qaeda is raising money through the drug proliferation. However, senior U.S. officials have decided to “leave the crop alone” because of political and security complications in the “emerging democracy.” Officials say British forces in Afghanistan are tasked to lead counter-narcotics operations. But despite Afghan opium flooding the streets of London, the British command has appeared lackadaisical in developing a poppy eradication plan. A 2003 United Nations narcotics survey estimated that Afghan farmers and traffickers have made $2.3 billion in profits from opium, about half of the country’s domestic product. Afghans across the ethnic spectrum are concerned that President Hamid Karzai is seeking power-sharing deals with rival tribes and warlords that could undermine national elections scheduled for September, reports the Washington Post. Negotiations with former leaders of the Northern Alliance have angered leaders of Karzai’s Pashtun ethnic groups. [Editor: Karzai has also worried non-Pashtuns by reaching out to former Taliban officials.] Karzai’s efforts at deal-making have caused foreign observers to warn that he may be more concerned with his personal interests than building a democratic process for Afghanistan. “Why is Karzai making deals with extremists rather than moderates?” asked a Western election consultant. “The election is [supposed to be] a new process for Afghanistan. The people seem enthusiastic, but maybe the president isn’t ready for it.” Four U.S. Special Operations troops were killed in combat action in the southern Afghan province of Zabol, in one of the largest casualty losses since the fall of the Taliban, reports Reuters. More than 700 Afghans have been killed across the country since last August, mostly by Taliban and al Qaeda fighters intending to disrupt the lead up to elections scheduled for September. The U.S. military admits that the insurgents have gained strength in the south and east of the country [the site of the largest opium fields] within the past two months. May 31: American soldiers fighting in Afghanistan are expressing frustration with the lack of coherent strategy by their generals and U.S. policy makers as well as the fruitless effort to capture Osama bin Laden, reports Robert Novak of the Chicago Sun-Times. Afghan President Hamid Karzai is increasingly viewed as hopelessly ineffective and corrupt. The 100 U.S. Special Operations forces tasked to confront narco-terrorists lack the proper multi-faceted tools to destroy the world’s largest opium crop. Furthermore, military lawyers have the ability to inform field commanders when and where they can conduct air strikes, regardless of tactical intelligence. The feeling of fighting with their “hands tied behind their backs,” is creating a decline in moral among troops in the field who increasingly appear to be strategically lost in the vast arid mountains and plains of Afghanistan. June 4: The failure of the international community to stop Afghanistan’s massive opium production threatens to destabilize the entire Central Asian region and fund a new generation of terrorists, Kazakhastan’s Foreign Minnister Kasym Tokayev told the Washington Times. “Our concern is that there have been so many conferences, so many organizations formed to fight drugs and terrorism, but nothing concrete gets done.” He adds, “The real terrorists are watching those conferences and speeches and they’re laughing at us.” |
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Copyright
© 2004, American Foreign Policy Council.
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