NATO to focus on dope dealers in Afghanistan

NY Times:

NATO forces in Afghanistan will step up attacks on drug lords and narcotics traffickers who are supporting an insurgency that has rebounded in the past year and is responsible for rising violence, the top American commander in Afghanistan said Wednesday.

The comments by the commander, Gen. David D. McKiernan, made clear that international troops in Afghanistan were not going to eradicate opium poppy crops. Afghanistan is the world’s top supplier of opium poppies, which are processed into heroin.

But by drawing a clear link between the narcotics trade and its role in the insurgency, General McKiernan was outlining what could be an important and expanding role for American and NATO troops as they seek to eliminate a source of money and weapons for the insurgency.

“I think there’s a need for increased involvement in I.S.A.F. in assisting the Afghan government in counternarcotics efforts,” said General McKiernan, commander of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, or I.S.A.F. “Where we can make a clear intelligence linkage between a narcotics dealer or a facility and the insurgency, I consider that a force protection issue, and we can deal with that in a military way.”

NATO commanders always have the right to take steps to protect their troops. It is under this authority that General McKiernan is authorizing attacks on drug lords who are helping the insurgency.

Specifically, General McKiernan said his forces would be authorized to attack narcotics bosses, their foot soldiers and infrastructure if they were linked to the movement of weapons, improvised explosives or foreign fighters into Afghanistan.

Some nongovernmental organizations have urged international security forces to take an active role in eradicating the poppy crops. But American and NATO officials have vigorously rejected those proposals, saying such decisions should be left to the Afghan government, which would also have to develop alternate livelihoods for the farmers.

Even so, General McKiernan noted that NATO’s senior commander, Gen. John Craddock, had approached the alliance to see whether the mandate for Afghanistan should be reopened to determine “if there are some increased authorities that NATO should exercise” in combatting narcotics.

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The general said the Taliban would take in at least $100 million in heroin proceeds this year.

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I think a grass roots or poppy roots effort would be more effective. Denying the product to the dealers would put them out of business quicker and more effectively. The way to keep the farmers from becoming enemies is to offer them better prices for food crops. It would also help Afghanistan's chronic food shortages.

It would also be a variation of the broken window theory of policing that results in the reduction of all types of criminal activity. The way to get the Afghan government to agree is to make them the same kind of offer as the farmers. In both cases you make it clear that the continued production of opium poppies is not going to be acceptable so they are better off taking the money for food production.