Taliban retreat from their cash crop

Strategy Page:

No Taliban Summer offensive this year. Instead, it's the government forces who are attacking, with the targets being Taliban resources (drug operations) and supplies (access to Pakistan for reinforcements and weapons). The main target is Helmand province, where most of the world's heroin is produced. This is where the Taliban make the money that fuels their terror campaign. The Taliban control the local population largely through terror. Unable to handle the foreign troops in battle, the Taliban flee them. The only way the Taliban can inflict acceptable (not losing too many of their own) casualties on foreign troops is with roadside and suicide bombs. But if the Taliban lose Helmand, they lose the cash they need to pay most of their gunmen (and the families of the thousands of these fighters who die each year). While the core Taliban membership (a few thousand men) would keep on fighting for nothing, most of these guys have families, who have to eat, so the money is essential for even the hardcore. In order to be more than a local nuisance, the Taliban require large quantities of cash, which only the drug business can provide. Meanwhile, the Taliban base areas in Pakistan are being occupied by the Pakistan army. The Taliban, as they are wont to do, went too far in Pakistan, and the population finally turned against them. So the Taliban are being squeezed on both sides of the border.

The Taliban publically say that they will fight the 4,000 (assisted by 600 Afghan troops) U.S. Marines in southern Helmand. So far, this has largely been just talk. There are already 9,000 British troops operating in northern Helmand. The American marines wanted an equal number of Afghan troops, but the Afghan army didn't that many available. The marines intend to leave small garrisons all over southern Helmand, and wait for the Taliban to try and reclaim their little heroin producing cash machine.

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With all the daily stories about the fighting in Helmand, it is easy to lose track of the strategic problem these attacks create for the Taliban and their ability to sustain operations. They have already found that they take unsustainable losses when they engage in combat with US forces. Now they are left with losing their sources of funds for what remaining combat they can do.