[Peace-discuss] Obama's prevarication on the war

[C. G. Estabrook]

[Here's some more on Obama's amazing, lying excuse for killing people in 
Afghanistan.  --CGE]

	BBC NEWS
	Karzai 'impeding Afghan drug war'

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is obstructing efforts to tackle his country's 
drugs problem, a former US counter-narcotics official has said.

Thomas Schweich said Mr Karzai had protected drug lords for political reasons 
and tolerated "a certain level of corruption" rather than lose power.

He said the former attorney-general had told him the president had prevented the 
prosecution of some 20 officials.

Mr Karzai has denied the claims, saying his government had cut drug production.

"Nobody has done as well as us in the last seven years in the field of 
counter-narcotics," he told reporters.

The president said his government had eradicated or greatly reduced drug 
production in more than half of the country's provinces.

But Mr Schweich, who until June was the US state department's co-ordinator for 
counter-narcotics and justice reform in Afghanistan, said such claims "ignore 
reality".

"The poppy cultivation right now is up and around 200,000 hectares - that's the 
biggest narco-crop in history," he told the BBC.

"The fact that it's become concentrated in five or six provinces doesn't change 
the fact that you have a massive, massive opium problem."

He added: "The attorney-general, who was just fired, told me he had a list of 20 
corrupt officials who he was not allowed to prosecute."

'Helplessness'

Mr Schweich also echoed claims that Nato and US commanders had been reluctant to 
get involved in fighting drugs, fearing that destroying farmers' crops would 
alienate tribesmen in the south and increase support for the insurgents.

"[Mr Karzai] perceives that there are certain people he cannot crack down on and 
that it is better to tolerate a certain level of corruption than to take an 
aggressive stand and lose power," he added.

But Mr Karzai denied his supporters were involved in smuggling.

"I don't blame Afghans for drugs smuggling. They may do it due to helplessness 
and there may be only a few of them," he said.

In an article in the New York Times Magazine on Sunday, Mr Schweich also accused 
the US defence department and military commanders from its Nato ally Britain of 
obstructing attempts to eradicate the opium crop.

"Some of our Nato allies have resisted the anti-opium offensive, as has our own 
Defense Department, which tends to see counter-narcotics as other people's 
business to be settled once the war-fighting is over," he wrote.

Facing voters

Mr Schweich claimed Britain had urged Mr Karzai to reject a US state department 
plan to stamp out poppy cultivation.

"Although Britain's foreign office strongly backed anti-narcotics efforts (with 
the exception of aerial eradication), the British military were even more 
hostile to the anti-drug mission than the US military," he wrote. The claims 
come as Mr Karzai prepares to run for another term in office in next year's 
Afghan presidential elections.

Mr Schweich wrote: "Karzai was playing us like a fiddle. The US would spend 
billions of dollars on infrastructure development; the US and its allies would 
fight the Taliban; Karzai's friends could get richer off the drug trade; he 
could blame the West for his problems; and in 2009 he would be elected to a new 
term."

The United Nations says that enough opium was produced last year in Afghanistan 
to make more than 880 tonnes of heroin with a street value of $4bn ($2bn).

A British Foreign Office spokesman said: "Drugs pose a threat to the future of 
Afghanistan, and the UK is one of the leaders in international efforts to combat 
the narcotics trade.

"We are committed for the long haul in this challenging endeavour, through a 
two-pronged approach, to tackle both supply and demand."

A US state department spokesman defended the country's support of President 
Karzai, saying he was working to help improve the plight of Afghanistan.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/7523285.stm
Published: 2008/07/25 00:34:27 GMT


C. G. Estabrook wrote:
> Here's a sample of the War Candidate's speech in Berlin today.  He calls 
> for killing people in Afghanistan. Didn't Bush say the same thing, but 
> about Iraq?
> 
> "This is the moment when we must renew our resolve to rout the 
> terrorists who threaten our security in Afghanistan, and the traffickers 
> who sell drugs on your streets ... my country and yours have a stake in 
> seeing that NATO's first mission beyond Europe's borders is a success 
> ... the work must be done. America cannot do this alone. The Afghan 
> people need our troops and your troops ... We have too much at stake to 
> turn back now..." --B. Obama 7/24/08
> 
> (The drug line is a new, mendacious, and surprisingly weak excuse: under 
> the Taliban, heroin production was suppressed, but a UN report of August 
> 2003 stated that Afghanistan had re-emerged after the American invasion 
> as the world's leading source for opium and heroin. The report estimated 
> that 500,000 people were involved in Afghanistan's trafficking chain and 
> estimated an annual income at $25 billion.)
> 
> 
> C. G. Estabrook wrote:
>> Read the text at
>> <http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/07/full_text_of_obama.php>. 
>>
>>
>> Karen Medina wrote:
>>> Did anyone else hear Obama's speech to Berlin today? GRRRRRRRR.
>>>
>>> Who was the audience? They looked American, no translators, and many 
>>> were waving US flags.
>>>
>>> -karen medina
>>
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