Ironic Parallel

There really is a whole lot of irony in this story of the attempt to eliminated the growing of opium poppies in Afghanistan:

The New York Times leads with word that a recent push by U.S. officials to convince the Afghan government that it should begin a program to spray the country's opium poppies has been having some results. Although President Hamid Karzai has long objected to these types of efforts, some in his administration are beginning to reconsider, even as there are growing concerns that a spraying program could destabilize the government.

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Poppy cultivation in Afghanistand is growing, and Taliban insurgents get much of their money from the crop, but there's concern that an official program that would spray chemicals over farms would merely increase the insurgents' popularity and decrease support for Karzai and his government. The NYT says that "in something of a reversal of traditional roles," Pentagon and CIA officials are trying to convince the White House and State Department not to push for the program. There's concern the spraying would kill food crops that are planted alongside poppies, which could easily be depicted by the Taliban as an attack on the livelihood of the common Afghan. Although the NYT does briefly mention Plan Colombia, it fails to analyze whether these types of spraying programs have worked effectively in the past.

Karzai would be removed without the support of the opium warlords. The economy of Afghanistan would get even worse creating an even greater breeding ground for fundamentalism. The U.S. can do whatever they want to try and eliminate opium poppies, but there's no way they'll be able to (see: marijuana, U.S. production). And the Afghanis will fight it one way or the other.

Isn't it ironic that the two stupidest "wars" perpetrated by conservatives are intersecting in Afghanistan? It's no accident.

Both wars are being fought with the same stupid naivete. Neither can be extinguished "at the source", neither problem is a result of supply, and both are driven by demand. Without any serious effort to stem demand, the "wars" simply continues in perpetuity at very high cost to everyone.