AFGHAN: A FAILED STATE?

There's a lot of money involved and it may be a source of income for Al Qaeda or other Islamic terrorists.

Record-breaking opium crop destabilizes Afghanistan
Sat Aug 25, 2007 10:08PM EDT
By Jon Hemming

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghanistan's poppy harvest is expected to top all records this year as the country spirals deeper into a vicious circle of drugs, corruption and insecurity.

A United Nations report due on Monday will announce that Afghanistan is now producing nearly 95 percent of the world's opium, up from 92 percent in 2006, officials and diplomats say.

Afghanistan is locked in a vicious circle in which drug money corrupts government and helps fund the Taliban insurgency. That weakens state control over parts of the country, which in turn leads to more insecurity and more drug production.

Opium and the heroin made from it are estimated to be worth some $3 billion to the Afghan economy, about a third of its gross domestic product.

Something else I didn't know about opium:

Insecurity also leads farmers to plant poppy, as fighting may prevent them from getting perishable crops to market.

"The great thing about opium is that it lasts for 20 to 30 years -- it's money in the bank," said a senior Western diplomat. "So if you're not sure you can get your onions or carrots to market as they may go off because it's too insecure to move, then you grow opium and put it under your bed -- it's a currency."


Just like Iraq, the cops aren't part of the solution:

Meanwhile, the notoriously corrupt, poorly equipped and badly paid Afghan police are unlikely to be able to do much to stop drug producers and traffickers, let alone the kingpins that run the trade and have thus far remained free from prosecution.