DRUG ABUSERS HELP SUPPORT TERRORISM

The Associated Press photo caught our eye. The soldiers isre members
of the 101st Airborne Division in Afghanistan, and they're shown
destroying opium poppies in the Tani district of Khost province.

Afghanistan, according to the AP, produced 93 percent of the world's
opium. That means Afghanistan supplied most of the main ingredient to
manufacture heroin during 2007. A large percentage of that heroin
found its way to American streets.

With all the concerns of terrorist attacks on American soil and fears
of biological weapons or "dirty" bombs being used, here's an instance
where the Taliban and al Qaida are carrying out an assault on our
country. They're also profiting, too, since the Afghan insurgency is
using opium sales to finance its operations.

Who would have thought American drug addicts could be a secret weapon
for the insurgents and terrorists we're fighting half a world away?

It's ironic that drug money is being used to help finance Islamic
radicals considering Islam's vehement opposition to drugs. After all,
in parts of the Islamic world drug offenses carry the death penalty.
Of course, keeping the flow of heroin into America reinforces the
extremists' contention of Americans as a weak, decadent people.

Plus it helps undermine our society, along with the rest of the drugs
Americans abuse.

Seeing the AP photo drives home the point that, at least in some
parts of the world, the drug war is a real war. Along with fighting
insurgents and helping rebuild Afghanistan, our troops find
themselves having to help eradicate opium poppy fields, too.

Through America's long war on drugs, some have advocated making it a
real war. Afghanistan is a place where it could be done. Yet instead
of sending ground troops out on patrol to destroy plants and fields,
why not just call in an old-fashioned air strike on the poppy fields
with napalm and totally eradicate them? Then the Afghans could be
taught and encouraged to raise other, less lethal, cash crops, ones
that won't finance our enemies.