Why would US Transform Afghanistan into a Drug Empire?

For a total of sixteen years the US has been occupying Afghanistan after invading immediately after the 9/11 attacks. This act of aggression has already become the longest war in American history, overtaking the “record” that was held by the Vietnam War that lasted from 1964 to 1975. During this period, Washington would spend over 800 billion dollars on the so-called reconstruction of the Afghan nation. As a result of this “reconstruction”, the Taliban has been regaining control over the country, which has resulted in this group controlling over 40% of Afghan territory. Additionally, opium production rates have overtaken the figures of 2001, as the Pentagon does nothing to combat drug trafficking.

It’s curious that according to the Al-Jazeera the estimated value of opium and its by-products produced in Afghanistan in 2016 reached 3.02 billion dollars up from 1.56 billion dollars in 2015. According to UN estimates, drug trafficking accounts for 15% of the Afghan economy, with every tenth person in the country being a drug addict! In comparison, the global average resides at the level of every twentieth citizen.

According to the experts engaged in fighting Afghan drug trafficking, an Afghan farmer would receive 600 dollars for eleven pounds of opium. However, a pound of heroin, produced from this amount would be sold for over 150 thousand dollars on the black market! At the same time, no one knows where in who’s pockets the missing 149 thousand dollars would go.

Under these conditions, what can be said about the forces of the United States who have allegedly been “protecting the country from the forces of international terrorism?”? How could local drug lords produce 6400 tons of opium in 2014 alone with a formidable force being deployed by NATO?

Once Americans invaded Afghanistan in 2001, the country began producing up to 95% of all heroin on the black market. At the same time, Washington under various pretexts refuses to fight drug production.

When the Taliban came to power in 1996, they would mercilessly destroy opium poppy plantations and shot drug traffickers on sight. But once NATO pushed them to the southern provinces of the country in 2001, they were no longer able to resist the idea of receiving funds for their jihad from a such a lucrative business as drug trafficking. Now it is difficult to say how much resources received from the drug are being used for weapons purchases and other military needs of the Taliban or those cash flows are just being abused by local warlords, who have been transformed from fanatical radicals into ordinary drug dealers.

Today it is clear to pretty much everyone that Washington’s anti-drug campaign in Afghanistan has failed miserably in spite of the 8.5 billion dollars wasted on this conflict. According to expert, this year the level of drug production would be skyrocketing to unprecedented highs . The number of drug villages in Afghanistan have already exceeded last year’s figures, with about a third of the population being involved in the cultivation of opium poppy. Predictably, the number of drug trafficking operations keeps growing, as there’s new smuggling routes appearing , for instance, across Africa. Analysts say that both the “Balkan” route (Pakistan-Iran-Turkey-Europe) and new trails across Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine are being used heavily to get Europe drown in narcotics.

At the same time, tons of precursors for the manufacture of narcotic substances are illegally imported into Afghanistan annually. A total 66 tons of such chemicals was seized in 2016, while over 50 tons were confiscated in the first six months of this year alone! Moreover, according to reports presented in Afghan sources, such countries as Italy, France and the Netherlands are among the main suppliers of those suppliers.

That is why one cannot help but be amazed by the disability of the US and NATO forces, despite their continuous presence in Afghanistan, to provide an ample support to the government of the country in the fight against drug production, which remains one of main sources of financing of terrorism, the fight against which, according to official statements, is Washington’s primarily goal in Afghanistan. According to UN estimates, about half of the revenues of illegal armed groups in Afghanistan, estimated at the level of 400 million dollars, are coming from the drug trade. Under these circumstances, the recommendations drafted by the US Special Inspector General for the Rehabilitation of Afghanistan on the need to develop of a comprehensive anti-drug strategy in Afghanistan is getting increasingly relevant. John Sopko’s remarks about the 8.5 billion dollars wasted on the anti-drug campaign in Afghanistan shows its utter failure, as the drug production levels in Afghanistan are breaking records, and the country remains the world’s largest producer and exporter of opium.

The organization SIGAR, created to control the funds allocated for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, submitted a report according to which the US spent hundreds of millions of dollars to support the Afghan government. At the same time it is clear to pretty much everyone that the longest war in US history can not be won without a comprehensive plan to fight drug trafficking. After 16 years of bloodshed Afghanistan still accounts for 75% of the world’s heroin supplies, and remains to this very date a country with the highest concentration of terrorist groups in the region.

The Nangarhar Province has virtually become a black market hub for all sorts of terrorists and drug traffickers. There is a very close relationship between heroin traffickers and terrorist groups, as drug traffickers surrender a part of their proceeds from the sale of drugs to the Taliban as a “zakat” – an obligatory donation, which is one of the five pillars of Islam.

As long as the US remains reluctant to address this problem, Trump will not be able to fulfill his promise to win. So why would Washington transform Afghanistan into a drug empire?

First of all, hardly anyone today will doubt that it is the drug trade that allows the US and NATO to control the population of this country, as well as local leaders. Why counter fight the North Atlantic Alliance troops, if they provide an opportunity to have a stable source income, no matter how illegal? The degree of involvement of Afghan peasants in the production of drugs is eloquently evidenced by the fact that peasants are getting loans to cultivate poppy crops.

It should also be remembered that drug trafficking is a powerful instrument for influencing Europe, as well as Central Asian countries, by creating a problem of drug dependence among their population, as well as creating the ground for financial nourishment of criminal groups that are advantageous to pro-Washington opposition groups. By concentrating their efforts on the struggle with internal challenges, these states will be economically and socially weakened, thus reducing their activities on the international arena, giving Washington to rule the world uncontested.

Finally, there is a clear financial link between the Afghan drug lords and the Alliance troops. Transportation, patronage and ensuring the safety of drug production is often carried out by the forces of American weapons and American means of transportation.

In 2006, the United States adopted a federal law on the fight against drug trafficking, which made it illegal to participate in the drug trade in order to provide material support to terrorist organizations and individuals involved in terrorist activities. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, about 37% of all terrorist groups are related in one way or another to drug trafficking.

According to the report of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in 2016, two-thirds of the world’s land used for the cultivation of opium poppy can be found in Afghanistan. In 2015, Afghanistan produced 77% of all world’s heroin. The purest injectable heroin that smugglers call “spin mal” that is being produced in the Nangarhar Province can be found all across the world, including the United States. And from here it is not difficult to understand who benefits from this drug trafficking.

So for some Aghanistan is a source of terror and death, while for others – a convenient opportunity for additional enrichment by engaging in the lucrative drug business.

Therefore, while the NATO countries and, in particular, the United States will have financial and political interests in the region, the problem of drug production in Afghanistan will remain one of the most important problems on the international stage.

Originally published on 2017-10-22

About the author: Valeriy Kulikov, expert politologist, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”

Source: New Eastern Outlook

Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection & Pinterest.

Read our Disclaimer/Legal Statement!

Donate to Support Us

We would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics and international relations.

READ MORE!

US Foreign Policy: Hegemony or Stability, not Both

US foreign policy has for decades been predicated on achieving and maintaining global peace, security and stability. In reality, it has for over a century constituted an overreaching desire to achieve and maintain global hegemony. And where US efforts focus on achieving hegemony, division and destruction follow. From the Middle East to Eastern Europe, and from Southeast Asia to the Korean Peninsula, US intervention politically or militarily all but guarantee escalating tensions, uncertain futures, socioeconomic instability and even armed conflict. The Middle East and North Africa US efforts in the Middle East since the conclusion of the first World War have focused ...

Russian Oligarchs are a Problem, But Let’s Not Forget American Ones

Oligarchs the world over have long been destabilizing economies and shaping governing bodies for their own benefit. For instance, if we turn to the supposed ‘birth of democracy’ in Ancient Athens, elites (called ‘citizens’) of the polis ruled over the mass populace (the common people of the hoi polloi). Plato had instilled in many Greeks at the time (and this is an idea seen in practice from fascist lies of white supremacy to false justifications for criminal wars) a faith in the supremacy of ruling class that the elites could justify lying to the hoi polloi,masking the truth the public ...

The Ambiguity: The Case of Democracy

The Great Financial Crisis, the Occupy Wall Street rising, Wikileaks and Snowden exposure, imperialist interventions in Iraq-Libya-Syria, the economic-political developments in Greece, and the on-going string of revelations in the US politics take away all ambiguities related to democracy, development and state. With broad and fundamental connections and character the incidents and processes – parts of democracy and development – being witnessed by the contemporary world are significant with far-reaching implications, and helpful to comprehend issues of democracy, development and state. No ambiguity: Ambiguous and confusing narratives of democracy and development are vigorously sold in markets despite the reality of repeated ...

England’s Irish Slaves

Records are replete with references to early Irish Catholics in the West Indies. Gwynn in Analecta Hibernica, states: ‘The earliest reference to the Irish is the establishment of an Irish settlement on the Amazon River in 1612.”(1) Smith, in Colonists in Bondage, reports: “a Proclamation of the year 1625 urged the banishing overseas of dangerous rogues (Irish Political Prisoners); kidnapping (of Irish) was common.”(2) Condon states that the first considerable emigration from Ireland to the southern latitudes of America was to Guiana in 1629.(3) Newton declares that Antigua and Montserrat were occupied as early as 1632 and that many emigrant Irish ...

The Hidden Story of Crimea’s Economic Success

Recently Crimea celebrated the 2nd anniversary of its reunification with Russia, marked on the day of the referendum that ended the Ukrainian occupation. Much has been written about the political and geopolitical aspects of the reunification as well as the social sentiments of the people, but little has been said about the economy. I want to lift the lid on that because the results of the economic transition are in fact quite impressive, especially considering the arduous hurdles that had to be overcome in the process.The transition from the Ukrainian economy to the Russian one meant a transfer from a ...

The “Catalonian Question”

The Catalan identity and Catalonia Catalans are the people who live in the territories of Spain in the autonomous-historical region called Catalonia. Their significance for the Spanish inner politics can be understood as the best if we know that Catalonia (Catalunya) is being since 1975 the most politically and economically powerful autonomous self-governed region in the Kingdom of Spain – during the last 20 years, basically, a kind of “a state within the state”. As a matter of fact, Catalans are the most integrated ethnohistorical groups of Spain together with Basques.[1]What makes Catalans so interlinked could be understood if we know ...

The West vs Russia: Towards the End of a Pax Americana?

A peaceful dissolution of the USSR according to the agreement between Mikhail Gorbachew and Ronald Reagan in 1988 in Reykjavik brought a new dimension of a global geopolitics in which up to 2008 Russia, as a legal successor state of the USSR, was playing an inferior role in global politics when an American Neocon concept of Pax Americana became the fundamental framework in international relations. Therefore, for instance, Boris Yeltsin’s Russia capitulated in 1995 to the American design regarding a final outcome of the USA/EU policy of the destruction of ex-Yugoslavia in November 1995 (the Dayton Agreement) followed by even ...

Americans Pay Price for Criminal Wars From Mass Shootings at Home

America’s horrendous gun violence can be attributed to many factors, but there is one factor that is hardly talked about or explored in public discourse – the apparent link between mass shootings and the rampant culture of US militarism.Mass shootings in the US – involving four or more persons – occur on an almost daily basis. The most recent major atrocity was in Virginia Beach last month in which 12 people were killed. The shooter was reportedly a military veteran.Turns out that US military veterans are disproportionately responsible for violent gun deaths among American civilians. Investigative journalist David Swanson has ...

The Simulation of Democracy

One of the most complicated and frustrating aspects of operating a global capitalist empire is maintaining the fiction that it doesn’t exist. Virtually every action you take has to be carefully recontextualized or otherwise spun for public consumption. Every time you want to bomb or invade some country to further your interests, you have to mount a whole PR campaign. You can’t even appoint a sadistic torture freak to run your own coup-fomenting agency, or shoot a few thousand unarmed people you’ve imprisoned in a de facto ghetto, without having to do a big song and dance about “defending democracy” ...

Is Slavery Still Exist?

A good tradition of the British and the West European colonialism Read our Disclaimer/Legal Statement! Donate to Support Us We would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics and international relations.

Ukraine: US-installed Fascist Tyranny in Europe’s Heartland

Ukraine matters. It’s territory is Europe’s largest after Russia’s. It borders seven countries in Europe’s heartland – Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Russia. It shares a strategically important 1,500-long land and sea border with the Russian Federation. The country is resource rich. Zbigniew Brzezinski once said: “without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be an empire, but with Ukraine suborned and then subordinated, Russia automatically becomes an empire.” Separately, he said if Russia reunites with Ukraine, it’ll be a Eurasian powerhouse. If Ukraine allies with Western Europe, Moscow will be significantly weakened geopolitically. The Obama regime’s February 2014 coup d’etat replaced democratic governance in Kiev ...

Another Dangerous Rush to Judgment in Syria

Exclusive: The U.S. government and the mainstream media rushed to judgment again, blaming the Syrian government for a new poison-gas attack and ignoring other possibilities, reports Robert Parry. With the latest hasty judgment about Tuesday’s poison-gas deaths in a rebel-held area of northern Syria, the mainstream U.S. news media once more reveals itself to be a threat to responsible journalism and to the future of humanity. Again, we see the troubling pattern of verdict first, investigation later, even when that behavior can lead to a dangerous war escalation and many more deaths. Before a careful evaluation of the evidence about Tuesday’s tragedy ...

Book Review: Robert Fantina, “Empire, Racism and Genocide: A History of U.S. Foreign Policy”, 2013

In its entire history, there has been very little time when the United States has been at peace. As it wages its many wars and ‘interventions’, the stated goal is always something few people could argue with: fostering democracy when a struggling people are resisting tyranny, removing threats to U.S. security, or punishing a cruel dictator for unspeakable misdeeds. Yet on closer scrutiny, these reasons are seldom valid. They simply hide the true purposes of U.S. military involvement, which are power and wealth. Starting with the barbarous destruction of Native American culture in order to gain farmlands, right through to the ...

Trump is Advised by Liars, Like Bush Was

As will be shown here, the U.S. federal government, under President Donald Trump, is repeating the very same deception of the public, in regard to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, that it had perpetrated back in 2002, against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, under U.S. President George W. Bush. (By contrast, and for secret reasons, the U.S. federal government does everything possible to downplay the barbarisms, such as are occurring in Yemen, that are perpetrated by the fundamentalist Sunni Kings of Saudi Arabia, and Emirs of Qatar, even while exaggerating the barbarisms by the fundamentalist Shiite clerics who control Iran — a key ally ...

Thank an Anti-War Veteran

Big Brother in the Aisles of HyVee Repeat a lie often enough, the conventional Nazi propaganda wisdom ran, and it will become an accepted truth. This last Veterans Day weekend, I couldn’t watch a sporting event, listen to a car radio, or even go shopping at the local grocery store without hearing a Great American Lie repeated over and over. Sports announcers, radio talk-show hosts, commercials, and even a recorded voice blasted into the aisles of the HyVeee supermarket told me again and again that I owed my great American “freedom” to veterans and current enlistees of the U.S. military – in other ...

Hitler Was Financed by the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England

The recent resolution of the parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE fully equalizes the role of the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany at the outbreak of the Second World War, except that it had the purely pragmatic purpose of extorting money from Russia on the contents of some of the bankrupt economies, intended to demonize Russia as the successor state to the USSR, and to prepare the legal ground for the deprivation of her right to speak out against revision of results of war. But if we approach the problem of responsibility for the war, then you first need to answer the ...

Before the U.S. Congress: HM King Peter II’s of Yugoslavia Speech at the Capitol in 1942

A highlight of Peter II’s 1942 official state visit to the U.S. was his speech before the U.S. Congress. That speech solidified and affirmed Yugoslavia as an ally of the U.S. during World War II.Following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had issued a statement in support of Peter II and the Yugoslav government.FDR’s message of April 8, 1941 emphasized that the U.S. would provide aid and assistance to Yugoslavia:“The people of the United States have been profoundly shocked by the unprovoked and ruthless aggression upon the people of Yugoslavia. The Government and ...

“Unlimited Imperialism”: History of American Militarism

It is the Unlimited Imperialists along the line of Alexander, Rome, Napoleon and Hitler who are now in charge of conducting American foreign policy…Historically this latest eruption of American militarism at the start of the 21st Century is akin to that of America opening the 20th Century by means of the U.S.-instigated Spanish-American War in 1898. Then the Republican administration of President William McKinley stole their colonial empire from Spain in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines; inflicted a near genocidal war against the Filipino people; while at the same time illegally annexing the Kingdom of Hawaii and subjecting ...

The Killing of Serbian Children in Kosovo: The Story of a Survivor

At the age of 15 on a riverbank he was shot eight times just for being Serbian. He survived and a few days later during the religious holiday of Transfiguration he was out of his coma. But until now he has not received an answer to his question: who shot the children bathing in the river near the Kosovo village of Gorazdevac on August 13, 2003? In his interview to the Voice of Russia Bogdan Bukumiric tells a wonderful story of his rescue.“It is not so scary to die as to be buried alive” – this is the inscription on ...

The 2001 War on Afghanistan is a Profit Driven “Resource War”

Author’s Note US and NATO forces invaded Afghanistan more than 16 years ago in October 2001. It’s has been a continuous war marked by US military occupation. The justification is “counterterrorism”. Afghanistan is defined as a state sponsor of terrorism, allegedly responsible for attacking America on September 11, 2001. The war on Afghanistan continues to be heralded as a war of retribution in response to the 9/11 attacks. US troops are still present and deployed in Afghanistan. The legal argument used by Washington and NATO to invade and occupy Afghanistan under “the doctrine of collective security” was that the September 11 2001 attacks constituted an ...