OPIUM TRADE IMPERILS AFGHANISTAN, SENATE TOLD

WASHINGTON - Interrupting the opium poppy-based economy of Afghanistan
should be part of the Pentagon's military mission, an expert on the
country told the Senate on Wednesday.

The U.S. policy has recently shifted from ignoring the existence of
poppy fields and opium warehouses to destroying them when military
operations happen to come across them.

Mark Schneider, senior vice president of International Crisis Group,
told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the Pentagon policy should
go further.

"Actively destroying the opium network should be within their
mandate," he said. "Afghanistan is in clear and present danger of
descending from a narco-economy to a narco-state."

Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium; it accounts for
half the country's economy.

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., didn't comment specifically on the advice,
but he agreed that Afghanistan is in peril, in large part because of
the resurgence of the opium production.

The Taliban, which the United States drove out of power in 2001, was
largely financed by opium poppies and the heroin made from them.

"The prospect we could fail in Afghanistan is very real," Lugar said
at a hearing he conducted.

"The same sources of conflict and instability that allowed the Taliban
to seize power and fueled the growth of al-Qaida's terrorist network
continue to threaten the future of Afghanistan."

Lugar, other senators and the witnesses - academics and members of
think tanks, but no representatives of the Bush administration - said
the United States and NATO should send more troops, more money and
more leadership to Afghanistan.

Robert Perito, a senior fellow at the Institute of Peace, said the
international effort to rebuild Afghanistan's roads, security and
social systems is failing.

For instance, he said, Italy is in charge of helping Afghanistan
remake its judicial system and prisons, but "there is no master
strategy or even consensus on priorities," and Italy has not been able
to prevent Afghanistan from "squander(ing) time and resources in
bitter turn battles."

He agreed with Schneider that the illegal drug trade is the most
serious problem that must be dealt with before other concerns can be
resolved.

The U.S.-led coalition and NATO "forces must begin proactively
performing at least a limited number of counter-narcotics enforcement
functions," Perito said. "This would help correct the misimpression of
Afghans that the U.S. military condones participation of warlords in
the drug trade."