THEY BOTH HATE THOSE POPPY FIELDS

I'm scratching my head over Bill Bennett's statement in his Nov. 29
editorial-page piece "our enemies in Afghanistan have derived considerable
sustenance and resources from the drug trade." The enemies he refers to
presumably do not include the Taliban, dedicated as they were to leveling
the famous Afghan poppy fields. So earnest were the Taliban as drug
warriors that President Bush sent them millions in drug war support only
months before the Sept. 11 attacks. When it comes to the degree of coercion
thought proper in controlling what adults choose to do with their own
bodies, Bill Bennett and the Taliban are of like mind. Jihads and drug wars
are merely two sides of the same irrational coin.

Michael R. Uth Beachwood, Ohio