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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neeka who wrote (413608)	6/10/2003 8:25:19 PM
From: American Spirit	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Opium production has tripled since we took over Afghanistan. Not saying I didn't support the war there, just that the allies we used happened to be the main opium traffickers in the world. Worse is post-war Iraq. No idea how to settle that place. Looks out of control. We need UN peacekeepers badly.

To: Neeka who wrote (413608)	6/10/2003 8:45:11 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Re: "care to post a link" 1) Tali-fundamentalist judges are back in power >>> Key word here is judges and, yes they are, including on the Afghani equivalent of a supreme court (the Chief Justice, in fact, a former Tali honcho). FEER (far eastern WSJ) has run news on it... and so have many others. They've given TV interviews for crying out loud, announcing how they believe Sharia is the 'proper and best' legal code for the Afghans, and they've been ruling from the bench like it's still the national religious law. 2) war lords are running the countryside >>> They are - even the US State Dept. admits it. In fact, we have started paying some of them direct subsidies to try and gain influence with them that way... though many of them are making FAR more by 'taxing' all goods that travel across their little regions (like along the Iranian border, or back in Northern Alliance territory, and also along the Pakistani border) or by directly controlling opium production. >>> Karzai's 'government' doesn't extend beyond the region of Kabul... and the armed men under his command are DRAMATICALLY outnumbered by the War Lord armies... and they never leave Kabul. His personal security is provided by mercs paid by the US. 3) opium production at all time highs.... >>> Yep, just confirmed by the UN Commission on Drugs. All time high production. This 'stable' political configuration of oligopolistic War Lord control is IDEAL for poppies. The EU, too, recently acknowledged that Afghan-derived heroin surging into Europe was at an all-time high.