IN AFGHANISTAN, IT'S OPIUM

Usually we are leery about special-interest studies, since the
conclusions usually match the group's mission. We took a critical
view of the Senlis Council's recommendations last week to counter the
insurgency of the Taliban in Afghanistan. We have to acknowledge,
though, that this international policy think-tank does offer
innovation for a counter-narcotics strategy that could strengthen,
not weaken, the Afghan government.

The war in Afghanistan became more economic than cultural when the
Hamid Karzai government outlawed the cultivation of poppies for
opium. Afghanistan supplies 80 percent of the world's opium. U.S. and
NATO forces are part of the campaign to eradicate Afghanistan's main
crop, and that invigorated anti-American sentiment, especially in the
rural areas.

Re-enter the Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents who are now in the drug
business by protecting the crop with Taliban fighters hired at 700
percent the normal salary of Afghan security officers. The protected
farmers are loyal to the Taliban; they profit from a stronger market
because eradication threatens to lower the supply.

Concludes the Senlis study, "the insurgency in Afghanistan seems to
have little to do with al-Qaida or the global Jihad, but more with
being able to feed one's family."

Instead of just sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan to go
toe-to-toe with the Taliban, Senlis recommends increasing economic
assistance to the poppy farmers by having the government legalize,
certify and market the opium worldwide as the base for morphine and
codeine pain relievers.

Why not? To win the Afghan war, it might be the economy, stupid!