WIPE OUT TALIBAN DRUG FIELDS

A recent news program revealed that the Taliban regime in Afghanistan
is primarily financed by the profits from the production and sale of
opium. While it is understandable that we can't find bin Laden, we
surely can find poppy fields so extensive as to produce $10 billion in
profits annually.

Only 12 percent of Afghanistan is arable land. Prior to the Taliban
this land was used for growing wheat, nuts, fruit and grass for
grazing sheep. The Taliban have concluded that there is more money in
opium than there is in nuts. Therefore all farmland is a target.

The destruction could be accomplished with conventional bombing and
herbicides. Once we start destroying this drug operation and affecting
the Taliban's income, they will have second thoughts about harboring
bin Laden.

Even the wealth of bin Laden can't offset the potential loss of
billions in drug profits.

E.A. Armstrong Jr.,
Slidell