BELATED BATTLE AGAINST AFGHAN DRUG TRAFFICKING

Taliban Thrives Along With Opium Production

KABUL, Afghanistan - In a walled compound outside Kabul, two members
of Colombia's counternarcotics police force are trying to teach raw
Afghan recruits how to wage close-quarters combat. Using mock wooden
AK-47 assault rifles, Lt. John Castaneda and Cpl. John Orejuela
demonstrate commando tactics to about 20 new members of what is
intended to be an elite Afghan drug strike force. The recruits - who
American officials say lack even basic law enforcement skills - watch
wide-eyed.

"This is kindergarten," said Vincent Balbo, the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration chief in Kabul, whose office is overseeing the
training. "It's Narcotics 101."

Another DEA agent added: "We are at a stage now of telling these
recruits, 'This is a handgun, this is a bullet.'" It is a measure of
this country's virulent opium trade, which has helped revive the
Taliban while corroding the credibility of the Afghan government,
that U.S. officials hope that Afghanistan's drug problem will someday
be only as bad as that of Colombia.

While the Latin American nation remains the world's cocaine capital
and is still plagued by drug-related violence, U.S. officials argue
that decades of American counternarcotics efforts there have at least
helped stabilize the country.

"I wanted the Colombians to come here to give the Afghans something
to aspire to," Balbo said. "To instill the fact that they have been
doing this for years, and it has worked."

To fight a Taliban insurgency flush with drug money for recruits and
weapons, the Bush administration now recognizes that it must also
combat the drug trafficking it had largely ignored for years. But
plans to clear poppy fields and pursue major drug figures have been
frustrated by corruption in the Afghan government, and derided by
critics as belated half-measures or missteps that are unlikely to
have much impact.

"There may have been things one could have done earlier on, but at
this stage, I think there are relatively limited good options," said
James F. Dobbins, a former State Department official who served as
the administration's special representative on Afghanistan.

Poppy growing is endemic in the countryside, and Afghanistan now
produces 92 percent of the world's opium. But until recently, U.S.
officials acknowledge, fighting drugs was considered a distraction
from fighting terrorists.

The State Department and Pentagon repeatedly clashed over drug
policy, according to current and former officials who were
interviewed. Pentagon leaders refused to bomb drug laboratories and
often balked at helping other agencies and the Afghan government
destroy poppy fields, disrupt opium shipments or capture major
traffickers, the officials say.

Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and military leaders also
played down or dismissed growing signs that drug money was being
funneled to the Taliban, the officials say.

And the CIA and military turned a blind eye to drug-related
activities by prominent warlords or political figures they had
installed in power, Afghan and U.S. officials say.

Not so long ago, Afghanistan was touted as a success, a country freed
from tyranny and Al-Qaida. But as the Taliban's grip continues to
tighten, threatening Afghanistan's future and the fight against
terrorism, Americans and Afghans increasingly are asking what went
wrong. To that, some U.S. officials say that failing to disrupt the
drug trade was a critical strategic mistake.

"This is the Afghan equivalent of failing to deal with looting in
Baghdad," said Andre D. Hollis, a former deputy assistant secretary
of defense for counternarcotics. "If you are not dealing with those
who are threatened by security and who undermine security, namely
drug traffickers, all your other grandiose plans will come to naught."

Administration officials say they had believed they could eliminate
the insurgency first, then tackle the drug trade.

"Now people recognize that it's all related, and it's one issue,"
said Thomas Schweich, the State Department's coordinator for
counternarcotics in Afghanistan. "It's no longer just a drug problem,
it is an economic problem, a political problem, and a security problem."

To step up efforts, last fall Bush privately prodded President Hamid
Karzai of Afghanistan to curb opium production, then vowed publicly
in February to provide more help.

While the DEA has imported Colombian trainers in Kabul, U.S. Justice
Department officials are helping build from scratch an Afghan
judicial system to deal with drug cases. State Department officials,
meanwhile, have helped found the Afghan Eradication Force to wipe out
opium poppy crops. The U.S. military is providing logistical support
for DEA raids and eradication.

The symbolic heart of the Bush administration's efforts is a
construction site amid tin shanties and junkyards near the Kabul
International Airport - a new $8 million Counternarcotics Justice
Center. After its scheduled opening in July, the center will be a
one-stop shop for drug cases, with two courts, offices for 70
prosecutors and investigators and jail cells for 56 drug suspects.