GOVERNMENT, NOT DRUG USERS, SUPPORTED TERROR

A recent letter to the editor ("Demand for illegal drugs fueling
terrorists," AC-T, Oct. 12) made me laugh. Why? Our government has given
millions of our tax dollars to the Taliban (yes, the "terrorist-sheltering,"
public-stoning-of-women Taliban) for the "war on drugs," most recently in
April. However, the Taliban announced plans to resume poppy production in
the case of a U.S. attack on Afghanistan. As far as who buys the bullet, the
writer is right in that it's folks in the U.S., but it's taxpayers, not drug
users. Our tax dollars bought the weapons Iraq used against us in the Gulf
War (the U.S. government supported Saddam Hussein for years); we gave money
to the Taliban, overlooking their horrific human rights record, and the CIA
trained bin Laden. We've trained and armed terrorists around the globe for
decades as part of a real politik strategy supporting US "interests" (read:
corporate interests). We are and have been allied with numerous
"narco-terrorists;" if one of "our" thugs runs drugs we look the other way.
And U.S. troops being killed by those bullets? Unlikely. No U.S. military
casualties in this war so far, but plenty of Afghan and U.S. civilians. Wars
kill civilians, not soldiers, disproportionately these days.

Beth Trigg, Asheville