AFGHANISTAN'S POPPY PERIL

A Different Tyranny

If Afghanistan had a national motto, it could be: Democracy is dicey
and poppies proliferate.

Before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, there was a clearly appropriate
military response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001: the
October 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. The link to 9/11 was definite
and direct.

The attacks were the work of Osama bin Laden's terrorist network,
al-Qaeda, which was based in Afghanistan. There, the ruling Taliban
was an eager supporter of bin Laden.

But nearly five years after that war and two years after Hamid Karzai
was chosen Afghanistan's president in a landmark election, the
country remains unstable. The Taliban is returning to power in the
south, and opium cultivation is booming.

Really booming.

Afghanistan's 2006 harvest of opium poppies will be record-setting.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime recently estimated that
this year's harvest will produce 6,100 metric tons of opium. That's
92 percent of the world supply of opium, which can be converted into
heroin.

The United States gets most of its opium from Colombia and Mexico.
But some of Afghanistan's opium does enter the U.S. drug market. That
should bring a frown to President Bush's face.

He should be frowning, too, because Afghanistan has become a
narco-state. The opium trade has corrupted public officials
nationwide and made economic development far harder to achieve.

That's not just a shame; it could signal a failed U.S. effort in
Afghanistan. Poppy profits are putting weapons in our enemies' hands.
The resulting instability makes it harder to stem opium cultivation
by offering an economic alternative to poppy farmers.

It will be hard to beat opium's appeal. Poppy farmers can earn as
much as 10 times more per hectare than cereal farmers in a
desperately poor country that still does not provide basic services.

Five years ago, Afghanistan needed the United States to follow up its
military win with an aggressive plan for rebuilding the country. That
didn't happen. Now it needs a miracle.