|
|
Marjah: Heroin, Taliban nexus in the eye of a storm
By: Sharif Khoram Sharif Khoram on: 14.02.2010 [13:08 ] (461 reads)
|
(3366 bytes) [nc]
|
|
Marjah: Heroin, Taliban nexus in the eye of a storm
by Sharif Khoram Sharif Khoram – Sun Feb 14, 1:12 am ET
KABUL (AFP) – Marjah is an opium-growing paradise in the Helmand River valley, where a Taliban reign of fear has created one of southern Afghanistan's most notorious insurgent dens.
Planned and built partly by the US government in the 1950s as a model farm belt irrigated by canals, Marjah is the target of the biggest military assault since the 2001 invasion which ousted the Taliban regime.
Operation Mushtarak ("Together") launched Saturday by thousands of US-led troops is a major test of President Barack Obama's strategy to end the eight-year war against the Taliban, defeat Al-Qaeda and hand greater control to the Western-backed Afghan government.
Marjah town and the surrounding area of Helmand province is home to an estimated 125,000 and beyond government control since the 2001 invasion.
Situated about 20 kilometres (12 miles) south of the provincial capital, Lashkar Gar, it is a collection of impoverished villages in Nad Ali district, fertile land for crops, vegetables, fruits, herbs and known for livestock farming.
But what should be the bread basket of Afghanistan is instead one of the world's richest sources of opium and heroin, earning billions of illicit dollars each year that help fund the insurgency.
US-funded canals criss-cross fields of opium poppies, which stand tall and green in February, not yet blooming red and not yet oozing the sap that will be processed into heroin and shipped across the world.
Populated by Pashtun tribes, residents are generally poor farm labourers or jobless in an area devoid of development since the 2001 US-led invasion.
For the deeply conservative Muslim population, as in most of Afghanistan, life revolves around strict adherence to Islam and women are kept in purdah, rarely allowed outside their homes and covered in burkas in public.
The Taliban work in tandem with drug traffickers to force local people to grow poppies. The Taliban presence increased after US Marines flushed them out of other parts of Helmand more than two years ago.
Marjah is one of the last insurgent bastions in Helmand, where NATO and US troops have never penetrated, and fears of heavy losses among Western forces are high.
The area is expected to be laced with improvised explosive devices (IEDs), mostly planted by roadsides and detonated by remote-control, the biggest killer of foreign troops in Afghanistan and a major killer of civilians.
Some 15,000 US, British and Afghan soldiers backed by helicopters stormed Marjah before dawn Saturday, immediately coming under fire and claiming their first Taliban victims within hours.
US commanders have urged the Taliban to surrender, but the militia has vowed to stay and fight and is believed to be massing with guns and rockets.
Hundreds of families left the area ahead of the start of the offensive, packing up their homes and rushing for safety in Lashkar Gar.
NATO and Afghan officials have said the offensive aims to re-establish government and a military presence under newly appointed district governor Haji Zair, who has not yet been able to live there and who will be responsible for administration.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100214/wl_sthasia_afp/afghanistanunrestmarjah_20100214061256
by sealion on 14.02.2010 [18:46 ]
|
|
|
Why Marjah?...
So that the ZIOFUCKERS can regain control of the HEROIN trade!....
That's also why the ZIOFUCKERS pledged to remain there for as long as they possibly can...
This is not a prelude to an attack on Kandahar, the fief of the Taliban, but simply a matter of drug economics...
FUCK Obama and all the ZIOSLUTS!...
|
by eureka on 15.02.2010 [17:27 ]
|
|
|
According to this article:
""But what should be the bread basket of Afghanistan is instead one of the world's richest sources of opium and heroin, earning billions of illicit dollars each year that help fund the insurgency.
US-funded canals criss-cross fields of opium poppies, which stand tall and green in February, not yet blooming red and not yet oozing the sap that will be processed into heroin and shipped across the world.
Populated by Pashtun tribes, residents are generally poor farm labourers or jobless in an area devoid of development since the 2001 US-led invasion.""
It goes on:
""The Taliban work in tandem with drug traffickers to force local people to grow poppies. The Taliban presence increased after US Marines flushed them out of other parts of Helmand more than two years ago.""
I have a couple of questions: If this area, fertile as it is, is being used exclusively to grow these poppies, where are these poor people obtaining their food from? Nowhere did it say that food is being planted; and we have to accept that this remote place is not being adequately served by outside suppliers given the tension that exists. Are we to assume that these poppies are being eaten for food? When the Taleban ousted the Northern Alliance, we heard that the Taleban forbade the growing of these poppies and it was the NA who were the ones cultivating and producing the heroin plant.
So has the Taleban changed their stance on poppy production, given their strict adherence to sharia law? I think not.
It is clear to me that the invaders and occupiers of Afghanistan had ulterior motives for the invasion and occupation of this country.
|
by eureka on 15.02.2010 [17:50 ]
|
|
|
If this recurring claim about the Taleban pushing drugs is true, then why are the US not preventing this so-called sale of heroin to drug traffickers? This would certainly bring them to their knees.
I think it is reasonable to conclude that the Taleban cannot leave Afghanistan and travel to make these so-called drug sales; how are these large supplies of heroin being shipped to drug traffickers without the sale-point being discovered? It doesn't make sense.
People will say to me that weapons are also being smuggled but the difference there is, weapons are acquired by underground suppliers who do not require the participation of the average Joe and are intended to reach a select group; but drugs are shipped to capitals around the world because their final sale point is to target if possible all the citizens of the country. Not so with illegal weapons. Somebody has to know who the drug dealers are; they are not being sold by credit card. This is a cash for transaction sale. No credit here.
It also doesn't make sense to me that you can have a fertile area where once food was planted, and now it is solely being used for heroin production and the poor people who normally would be living from agricultural means are fully engaged in this. How do they eat?
If the US wasn't involved in drug trafficking, long ago, the problems in south america where Columbia produces most of the cocaine would have been solved. Because you cannot hide tons of cocaine and heroin in your pocket, and therefore many other people have to be involved in the distribution and the shipping of this narcotic.
Every now and again, they pretend that they are doing something about it by arresting a few small fish in the chain; but I think by now the majority of people know better.
|
|
RSS feed for articles and news
