FRUITS OF FREEDOM?

"This year's harvest will be around 6,100 metric tons of opium - a
staggering 92 percent of total world supply. It exceeds global
consumption by 30 percent." Maria Costa, director of the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Culture, on a record opium harvest in U.S.
occupied Afghanistan.

It is a bitter irony that when American troops freed Afghanistan from
Taliban rule they also freed its corrupt warlords, entreprenuers and
farmers to rebuild the world's most lucrative drug trade. Even with
American prodding, the government's eradication efforts have been
largely ineffectual, while a resurgent Taliban is encouraging farmers
to boost their production. "It is indeed very bad," Costa said this
week. "You can say it is out of control." Are the chief beneficiaries
of America's liberaton of Afghanistan destined to be drug lords and
narco-terrorists?