NATO commander: Afghanistan drug raids imminent

Opium has long been the key crash crop of Afghani's. There is a worldwide demand for Opium. Destroying the drug lords or network, will not work. The UN knows paying the farmers to grow other crops is a waste. They know that these drug interdictions dont work.

This offensive is a waste of resources, it tells me the war is going badly.

Misleading reporting, Lolita

Who refuses to pull it through? What about the head of US mission on the ground? Does he?

What is the reason why they don't follow John Craddock's orders?

What is they want the US administration to do with John Craddock?

Everybody who follows that situation knows about the real story burried in there.

Shame on you for glossing it over.

Although I am uninformed, common sense tells me that some high tech weapons would do the job quite nicely. My only question is how the Afghan people survive?

Money from Afghanistan's booming illicit drug trade has been blamed for pumping up to $100 million a year into the coffers of resurgent Taliban fighters.

We will never be able to stop opium growers. It's kinda nice of us though, to let them know we are coming in a few days....... Don't these commanders realize that these growers are EVERYWHERE!... It will only serve to inflame the growers into taking the Taliban's side to protect their income and their crops.

Sorta like a Banker buying a credit default swap (insurance by any other name) to protect HIS endangered income.

Same kind of collateral fallout, different currency. People starve, lose their income, get forced from their land, adopt a negative attitude, and eventualy find refuge in the arms of the first people offering to render them aid. In this case, the Taliban, who will take them under their wing, defend their opium crop, and offer cash to just grow more for a cut of the proceeds.

Do you think the Chicago drug trade will ever be stopped? Come on General, get real. Afghanistan is a huge country and a waste of our resources and time, and a diversion from the bigger problems we have Pakistan.

The obvious rebuttal to my statement would be: Cut off the money to the Taliban and you will stop them. WHAT? Is that why the U.S. gave the top commanders of the Taliban huge sums of money to lay down their guns a fews years back in Pakistan? Another failed tactic.

Which is it General?.......We can't afford to keep randomly trying different tactics in the hope we'll just "get lucky" and stumble on one that works. We need to KILL THE TALIBAN where they sleep, along the Pakistan border and IN Pakistan where they rest and re-arm.

Elections don't work in war-torn countries. But killing and keeping the ENEMY out, works wonders.

The recollection of follow the money was a banner chant of the last administration and yet nothing was done, how could that be. Several years later and with adjustment about a billion dollars in the coffers of terrorist, the idea of where the money is coming from leads back to the drug cartel, ironic isn't this.

One wonders why all of sudden the interest starks back to the heroin trafficking and the sole agricultural crop of Afghanistan. Was the NATO commanders looking else where for the monetary flow to purchase weapons and war equipment. Wonders never cease with this outrageous predicament.

Here's an approach that the puritans in America will love: How about if WE buy the opium from the Afghan fighters? That's right, BUY it. A BIDDING war, not a shooting war.

After all, so long as there are cancer patients and people suffering from terrible wounds, there will be a need for morphine. And as long as there is a need for morphine, there will be a need for poppy cultivation. Right now, someone in the world is being paid to grow poppy for some pharmaceutical company, so why not pay the Afghans to do it? Two birds, one stone.

If the Afghan people were really smart, they'd hire a powerful lobbying group to rep their interests in Washington. The poor bastards are dealing with the wrong crooks.

Great TOPIC but why have these leaders finally going out of their way to get the job done again !!!! LEGALIZE it will stop alot of horror stories behind the drug cartel it is just like prostituion ,here we go again, just Flatten the mountain regions arial Battle not just more Troops.

Yes, it's always a good idea to give the poppy growers a good 3-4 day warning before raiding their farms.

Farmers head for the hills, raiders swoop in and burn a few fields (with plenty of photo ops), NATO gets to say "What good drug raiders are we", the farmers come out of the hills and plant more poppies.

What a dog and pony show.

I think this is fantastic. As a matter of fact, they should take ALL of our highly qualified drug fighting personnel over to Afghanistan so that they are able to assist in this first rate task.