The Volokh Conspiracy - The War on Drugs vs. the War on Terror

In recent months, I have repeatedly blogged about how our misguided War on Drugs is undermining the War on Terror in Afghanistan by alienating Afghans who depend on poppy cultivation for their livelihoods and by providing the Taliban with a ready-made source of income (see here and here, for my previous posts on the subject). Now, as the conservative British paper, the Daily Telegraph reports, the Bush Administration seems intent on making the problem worse by introducing new poppy eradication measures that are likely to alienate Afghans and help the Taliban even more than previous campaigns. Among other things, the new policy may cause great damage to legal crops as well as to poppy growing, thereby angering even those Afghan farmers who are not engaged in the drug trade:

The Afghan government is to launch a campaign of herbicide spraying of opium poppy for the first time following intense American pressure for a more radical approach to the country's burgeoning drugs problem.

Spraying, which will be undertaken by ground-based Afghan security units, is widely seen as a stepping stone to the still more controversial use of aerial spraying....

Spraying would allow eradication of the crop that dominates the world's heroin trade to begin earlier than the cutting and ploughing of fields which has been hitherto performed by Afghan security forces. The eradication technique is widely feared by farmers and viewed with great scepticism within the international community.....

A senior diplomat in Kabul said that spraying would be expensive and spur health scares and fears of wider contamination, potentially pushing farmers towards the Taliban. He added: "Aerial spraying would almost certainly be a disaster for Afghanistan given that poppy is grown in small portions of farmers already limited holdings. It would destroy legal crops more than illegal."

The article indicates that the new spraying program is not scheduled to start for another two months and that there may still be a chance that it will be shelved. However, I am not optimistic that the Administration will soon see the light of day on this issue.

Therefore, I have a suggestion for the new Democratic Congress: If you are serious about improving the conduct of the War on Terror, a good way to start would be to pass a bill banning the use of U.S. government funds for poppy eradication activities in Afghanistan. You can repudiate a Bush Administration policy and simultaneously increase our chances of winning in Afghanistan, which Democrats have repeatedly claimed we should be focusing on more. What's not to like?

	[Ilya Somin, December 4, 2006 at 12:45am] Trackbacks The War on Drugs vs. the War on Terror - Again: In recent months, I have repeatedly blogged about how our misguided War on Drugs is undermining the War on Terror in Afghanistan by alienating Afghans who depend on poppy cultivation for their livelihoods and by providing the Taliban with a ready-made source of income (see here and here, for my previous posts on the subject). Now, as the conservative British paper, the Daily Telegraph reports, the Bush Administration seems intent on making the problem worse by introducing new poppy eradication measures that are likely to alienate Afghans and help the Taliban even more than previous campaigns. Among other things, the new policy may cause great damage to legal crops as well as to poppy growing, thereby angering even those Afghan farmers who are not engaged in the drug trade: The Afghan government is to launch a campaign of herbicide spraying of opium poppy for the first time following intense American pressure for a more radical approach to the country's burgeoning drugs problem. Spraying, which will be undertaken by ground-based Afghan security units, is widely seen as a stepping stone to the still more controversial use of aerial spraying.... Spraying would allow eradication of the crop that dominates the world's heroin trade to begin earlier than the cutting and ploughing of fields which has been hitherto performed by Afghan security forces. The eradication technique is widely feared by farmers and viewed with great scepticism within the international community..... A senior diplomat in Kabul said that spraying would be expensive and spur health scares and fears of wider contamination, potentially pushing farmers towards the Taliban. He added: "Aerial spraying would almost certainly be a disaster for Afghanistan given that poppy is grown in small portions of farmers already limited holdings. It would destroy legal crops more than illegal." The article indicates that the new spraying program is not scheduled to start for another two months and that there may still be a chance that it will be shelved. However, I am not optimistic that the Administration will soon see the light of day on this issue. Therefore, I have a suggestion for the new Democratic Congress: If you are serious about improving the conduct of the War on Terror, a good way to start would be to pass a bill banning the use of U.S. government funds for poppy eradication activities in Afghanistan. You can repudiate a Bush Administration policy and simultaneously increase our chances of winning in Afghanistan, which Democrats have repeatedly claimed we should be focusing on more. What's not to like?