[Imc] (no subject)

[Paul Mueth]

Here's an interesting twist on the anti-drug money that was to be paid to the
Taleban. The earlier article from Robert Scheer
  http://www.robertscheer.com/1_natcolumn/01_columns/052201.htm posted by
PG Springer may have help scotch the payment for eradication of poppies.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0%2C%2C248-2001325851%2C00.html

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 21 2001
The war our leaders are happy to forget
SIMON JENKINS
Remember, there is a war on. I refer not to one war but to two. The British and
American Governments are fighting two wars, openly declared by both over the
past decade. One is in response to the American air disasters of last week. The
other, against drugs, was declared by America in 1990 and by Britain in 1994.

Both wars are in response to assaults on the integrity of Western society. Both
have been called "total" and "long-term", demanding the global projection of
military, diplomatic and economic power. Both are fought against shadowy foes
mostly operating in regions where anarchy and poverty march hand in hand. In
each case the rhetoric of violence has been easier to deploy than 
that of reason.

The War on Drugs has been lost but defeat is not admitted. Its battle 
plans still lie
on dusty shelves, its ships are mothballed, its generals cashiered. 
Yet the two wars
are closely linked. They finance each other. Just as the IRA was 
recently arrested
talking to FARC guerrillas in coca-growing Colombia, so 95 per cent of Europe's
heroin came last year from Afghanistan. The Taleban regime would not exist were
it not for opium. Part of its rage against America is at Washington's 
failure to send
aid after the Taleban agreed to eradicate this year's crop.


. . .

Mr Jenkins does an interesting survey, but neglects to point out that when
the CIA was using the proto Taleban to bleed the Russians and the Najee Bula
gov't the winked at the heroin trade  . (at least that .. )