OIL ISN'T THE ONLY ISSUE AT STAKE IN AFGHANISTAN

A recent letter to your newspaper berated the Taliban for instituting
a "severe and cruel regime" in Afghanistan and refutes an earlier
writer's statement the real issue in Afghanistan is oil.

I agree partially with both writers, but want to fill in a couple of
missing pieces.

It's common knowledge the Taliban and various oil companies are, or
have been, involved in planning pipelines in Afghanistan.

It's also true the Taliban represent fundamentalist Islamic views and
did institute bans on everything from music to dress codes.

They also banned the cultivation of the opium poppy.

"According to intelligence estimates, heroin production has decreased
significantly in most source areas, particularly in Southeast Asia
and South America. In fact, worldwide heroin production outside
Afghanistan decreased approximately 60 per cent ... from 2001 through
2004. Conversely, heroin production in Afghanistan increased sharply
following the defeat of the Taliban, from 2001 to 2004." (U.S. DEA website.)

"The hardline Taliban regime, which ruled Afghanistan until 2001,
greatly reduced opium poppy cultivation. However, under the rule of
the new democratically elected president, Hamid Karzai, opium
production is approaching record highs, with poppies now being grown
in all of Afghanistan's 32 provinces." (CBC News, Nov. 18, 2004.)

Abdul Karim Brahowie, Afghanistan's minister of tribal and frontier
affairs, says that the government has become so full of drug
smugglers that cabinet meetings have become a farce.

"'Sometimes the people who complain the loudest about theft are
thieves themselves,' he says." (Christian Science Monitor, May 13, 2005.)

Two final points:

In addition to oil and heroin, hundreds of millions of dollars worth
of contracts have been handed to companies like Halliburton and
Bechtel to rebuild the infrastructure destroyed by the overpriced
weapons bought from western military contractors, both at enormous profits.

Finally, tens of thousands of innocent civilians have been, and
continue to be, killed by the coalition forces in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

I sincerely hope that only a small number of Canadians are gullible
enough to believe that we are involved in an honourable "struggle
against international terrorism."

John Seeland

Nanoose Bay