Afghanistan+US Drug Policy=Disaster

Maybe Bush and the world community is paying too much attention to Afghanistan. It's the only possible answer to the question of, "How can you fuck up Afghanistan this much, this fast?" Then again, maybe I'm not giving US policy makers and their United Nations counterparts enough credit. It's always possible they could step up the "progress" and make it even worse in the future. Scary thought to ponder.

This month's installment of Afghanistan poppy eradication policies gone mad comes from the Telegraph. They report that the Karzai government in Afghanistan will--in all probability--cave to American pressure and begin ground based spraying of farms in the country. The real reason we want them to use this extreme technique? This way, when it fails and the remaining 3 farmers in Afghanistan that haven't already switched their allegiance to the resurgent Taliban do, we can force the Karzai government to use an even more extreme method. Air based spraying. The craziest thing isn't that our people want to use aerial spraying, a horrible idea no doubt, but I suppose a position you can take. No, the craziest part of this is they think aerial spraying in Columbia has worked. That's right, they think what the US has been doing in Columbia has been working.

"Reducing poppy cultivation can only be done over the long term, but some in the US want quick, unsustainable results," said one Western official.

"There are many in the US administration who think that aerial spraying proved effective in Colombia. But they have a hell of a fight on their hands to convince the international community that it would be a good idea in Afghanistan.

Dizzy yet? If news like this, which gives us a window into the brains of the people who make and defend drug policy, both here at home and abroad, doesn't make you utterly depressed about the future......Well...then I need better bud. Plain and simple.

Full article here. Related Washington Post article here. Via Andrew Studdaford at The Corner.