Stop the War

Very few people in the UK understand just what it is we are doing in Afghanistan and I'm one of them.
I don't accept it's making this country safer, in fact I believe the opposite to be true.

One of the most startling facts I came across recently is shown on Page 194 of the following document, the World Drug Report 2009 provided by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

In 2001, the year we went to war, there was a huge reduction in Opium Poppy Cultivation in Afghanistan.
But since then there has been a steady increase and its now at record numbers.

World Drug Report

And this revelation courtesy of The Independent...

"The opium issue remains a central part of the Government's argument for Britain's presence in Afghanistan. But the war on drugs is failing, with Afghanistan now holding a virtual monopoly on the world's opium supply in a trade that is "a well-funded threat to the health of nations" and has flourished due to "benign neglect, incompetence and corruption", according to the latest report on the drug problem in Afghanistan by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

It reveals that opium production – which is bankrolling the efforts of the Taliban – has rocketed from 200 tons in 1980 to 6,900 tons in 2009. During that time, Afghanistan's share of the world market has risen from 20 per cent to more than 90 per cent".

Full Story Here


So who exactly is controlling the drug trade in Afghanistan?

How difficult is it to take a flame thrower to a field of poppies?

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