1-get rid of the poppy fields

2
Then, as far as I'm concerned, leave them to their own devices.
It seems that Afghan's aversion to Shariah without the Taliban is seriously overplayed, and quite frankly, what better for the rest of the world than for the Wahabis to have a country for themselves again and have less need to hang around everyone else's country because there's no point otherwise?

Decriminalise heroin - thus placing the drug under government control and the Afghanis can earn a living. Heroin IS a very useful drug - why should criminals be the ones to benefit?

Leave Afghanistan.

Im with CJ
We already lost.

There is a consistent theme emerging, which is that "the poppy fields should be destroyed". Which is interesting, because - as CJ pointed out - the last time this occurred was when the Taliban was in control.

"U.N. drug control officers said the Taliban religious militia has nearly wiped out opium production in Afghanistan - once the world's largest producer - since banning poppy cultivation last summer." February 15th 2001

http://www.opioids.com/afghanistan/index.html

Since then, they lost control.

"With the recent defeat of the Taliban regime by the United States and its Afghan allies, the harsh anti-drug laws imposed by the old Islamic government have fallen by the wayside." December 26th 2001

http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/51/124.html

Note the dates: eleven months apart.

Now it is out of hand.

"Poppy growing is endemic in the countryside, and Afghanistan now produces 92 percent of the world’s opium." 16th May 2007

http://www.opioids.com/afghanistan/counternarcotics.html

The question is, how can the crops be eradicated?

Saying "the poppy fields must go" is easy. Making it happen, and replacing it as a cash crop with something less disastrous, but equally profitable (tobacco, anyone?), is extremely difficult to achieve.

As a foreign power, there is a difference between militarily invading a country, and destroying the livelihood of a percentage of its citizenry.

The impetus has to come from within...

"The Taliban enforced the ban by threatening to arrest village elders and mullahs who allowed poppies to be grown. Taliban soldiers patrolled in trucks armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers" February 15th 2001

For the US, or the UN, or any other foreign power to duplicate this process would be, quite simply, impossible.

POPPY FIELDS..

"The Taliban enforced the ban by threatening to arrest village elders and mullahs who allowed poppies to be grown."

Yes..and they would not stop at slapping the elder on the wrist..they would cut his blooming head off and mount it where the villagers could receive a very clear object lesson.

That worked... why not we also ? Oh..that's right :) "Human Rights"

The object of the game is not to iradicate poppy fields..but to eradicate the Taliban and the likelyhood of them using Afghanistan as a base from which to take Pakistan and it's Nuclear Arsenal

Let's not forget that people. It's only our suvival at stake here.

Desparate times call for desperate measures.

Destroying the poppy fields a good idea, but in reality a victory won't be had unless every last Taliban member is eliminated which of course is impossible. It is not only the Taliban, but many other corrupt elements including from out side in regard to funding arrangements.

There is no such thing as a victory in Afghanistan unless it is won by the Afghanis themselves. Instituting democracy, education and law enforcement in the short term may help but there are no guarantees when we leave the whole shebang won't fall down in a heap.

Victories cannot always be handed to a people by foreign invaders they have to win it for themselves.

Withdrawal from Afghanistan is long overdue.