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#1 Military spending not the only thing costing us in Afghanistan

Posted: Sun, 19 Feb 17, 18:18 pm
by bernomatic
Wonders of wonders, our trying to impose our drug ethics on another people is not working. Especially on people in such straights as the Afghani people have it.
The U.S. government’s multi-billion-dollar effort to counter narcotics in Afghanistan is a humiliating failure that’s resulted in a huge increase in poppy cultivation and opium production. Despite the free-flow of American tax dollars to combat the crisis, opium production rose 43% in the Islamic nation, to an estimated 4,800 tons, and approximately 201,000 hectares of land are under poppy cultivation, representing a 10% increase in one year alone.
Uncle Sam’s embarrassing counter narcotics effort is part of a broader and costly failure involving the reconstruction of Afghanistan. More than $100 billion have been dedicated to help rebuild the war-torn country and much of it has been lost to waste, fraud and abuse not to mention corruption. The drug initiative is a recent example, documented by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) in a quarterly report to Congress. The document linkis painful to read because it goes on for 269 pages, but Judicial Watch created a link for the counter narcotics section, which is around 19 pages and includes informative charts, graphs and the latest available statistics.
As of December 31, 2016, the United States has spent an astounding $8.5 billion for counter narcotics efforts in Afghanistan since 2002, the report reveals, making it clear that the cash will continue flowing. “Nonetheless, Afghanistan remains the world’s leading producer of opium, providing 80% of the global output over the past decade, according to the United Nations,” SIGAR writes. The watchdog includes statistics from the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) confirming a 10% increase in the amount of Afghan land that was under poppy cultivation between 2015 and 2016. Despite Uncle Sam’s generosity, poppy eradiation results were the lowest this decade, the watchdog states. “No eradication took place in the biggest opium-growing provinces because of the grave security situation,” the report reveals, noting a steady rise in production and cultivation in the past decade. “Eradication efforts have had minimal impact on the rise in illicit opium cultivation.”
The way I see it, we have one of two choices.
1.) perform air strikes using agent orange on the fields containing poppy cultivation. (more good money after bad?)
2.) totally pull out of the drug war in Afghanistan. Don't fund any addiction help. Leave them to their own devices and spend the money on better interdiction of drug smuggling to the U.S. of A.

:arrow: full article

#2 Re: Military spending not the only thing costing us in Afghanistan

Posted: Tue, 21 Feb 17, 02:01 am
by luke strawwalker
Just what I was about to suggest... load up some C-130's with spray booms and Roundup... problem solved...

We don't need no stinkin' Agent Orange... that stuff had dioxin in it which is what caused all those folks to get cancer...

Later! OL J R :)

#3 Re: Military spending not the only thing costing us in Afghanistan

Posted: Wed, 22 Feb 17, 00:57 am
by Joe Wooten
How about a genetically tailored bacterial disease that kills only opium poppies? Spray it over Afghanistan and Burma and then get the hell out and stay out. If they re-plant, re-infect.

#4 Re: Military spending not the only thing costing us in Afghanistan

Posted: Wed, 22 Feb 17, 04:07 am
by tmacklin
The pitiful peasants of Afghanistan, Mexico and many other Hell Holes are merely responding to the international demand for street drugs by the rich and famous. Supply and demand with politicians of every nation being paid off to look the other way. In Afghanistan it's the Taliban and Poppy Fields. In America it's Clinton Cash and Detroit.

Disgusting!

#5 Re: Military spending not the only thing costing us in Afghanistan

Posted: Wed, 22 Feb 17, 04:10 am
by luke strawwalker
tmacklin wrote:The pitiful peasants of Afghanistan, Mexico and many other Hell Holes are merely responding to the international demand for street drugs by the rich and famous. Supply and demand with politicians of every nation being paid off to look the other way. In Afghanistan it's the Taliban and Poppy Fields. In America it's Clinton Cash and Detroit.

Disgusting!

This is true... need to fight it on BOTH ends...

Personally I think it should be made standing policy that anybody coming in to an emergency room who are under the influence of illegal drugs should NOT be treated in any way, shape, or form. If they live, they face trial, if they die, tough luck.

That would make a lot of these idiots think TWICE about doing dope...

Later! OL J R :)

#6 Re: Military spending not the only thing costing us in Afghanistan

Posted: Wed, 22 Feb 17, 04:43 am
by Commander
luke strawwalker wrote: This is true... need to fight it on BOTH ends...

Personally I think it should be made standing policy that anybody coming in to an emergency room who are under the influence of illegal drugs should NOT be treated in any way, shape, or form. If they live, they face trial, if they die, tough luck.

That would make a lot of these idiots think TWICE about doing dope...

Later! OL J R :)
I have to disagree with you Luke. Too often the downward spiral which a drug abuser finds himself in is something they really can't help after a certain point. They will never think twice about the possible consequences, they are just doing what they "have to" to relieve the pain. It is sad that by the time they end up visiting a hospital they are usually beyond understanding what they have done to themselves.

Decriminalizing it won't work either, as some of the states are finding out now. The only thing I can think of to combat it is to educate people. Maybe a "scared straight" program where those who have fallen the deepest are exposed to youths in their mid teens.

#7 Re: Military spending not the only thing costing us in Afghanistan

Posted: Wed, 22 Feb 17, 05:13 am
by bernomatic
maybe, but as to the pushers, those selling the drugs... Maybe we could get them hooked on their own stuff and then stop supplying it to them in jail......

#8 Re: Military spending not the only thing costing us in Afghanistan

Posted: Thu, 23 Feb 17, 04:13 am
by luke strawwalker
Commander wrote:
luke strawwalker wrote: This is true... need to fight it on BOTH ends...

Personally I think it should be made standing policy that anybody coming in to an emergency room who are under the influence of illegal drugs should NOT be treated in any way, shape, or form. If they live, they face trial, if they die, tough luck.

That would make a lot of these idiots think TWICE about doing dope...

Later! OL J R :)
I have to disagree with you Luke. Too often the downward spiral which a drug abuser finds himself in is something they really can't help after a certain point. They will never think twice about the possible consequences, they are just doing what they "have to" to relieve the pain. It is sad that by the time they end up visiting a hospital they are usually beyond understanding what they have done to themselves.

Decriminalizing it won't work either, as some of the states are finding out now. The only thing I can think of to combat it is to educate people. Maybe a "scared straight" program where those who have fallen the deepest are exposed to youths in their mid teens.
IMHO if they're that messed up their Darwin award material and we're better off letting them kick out... just a drain on society anyway.

As for the decriminalizing, you're absolutely correct. When Colorado and Washington are SO full of pot heads that the companies there can't find any decent employees and start abandoning the state at the same time that the health and societal expenses of potheads start hitting the gubmint services, they'll start to figure that out. I've read more than a few companies are already figuring out that hiring potheads is a losing proposition and are moving elsewhere...

As for the "scared straight" BS, well, I guess it's worth an effort, but it'll never be more than a handful of people that it helps, sort of a token response... I sat through so many of those things in high school back in the late 80's it wasn't even funny... they'd trot out one dopehead loser after another that would tell his sad tale, tell how he got AIDS from shooting up or went to prison or killed his mother or girlfriend or sibling in a car wreck drinking and driving or whatever, and for probably 98% of the student body, there were about two evenly-split responses... There was the "smart kids" (of which I was one) for whom this was just a boring waste of time, because we knew better than to get involved in dope and hang around with alcoholics in the first place... just another parade of losers telling sad stories that if they'd have had a brain in their head to start with and weren't idiots, would have never gotten themselves into the predicament they were in. Oh well, at least I can sleep until it's over...

Then there was response number two, from the other half of the kids, who were the "go get blind stinking drunk every weekend, spread "Susie Cheerleader" across the hood of your pickup and gain carnal knowledge of her, spend all Sunday morning puking your guts out hugging the porcelain queen, smoke weed all Sunday afternoon, then brag about it all week at school until next weekend-- wash, rinse, repeat..." Those kids were gonna go get wasted every weekend drunk as skunks, f*** around with anything that would drop their pants, and smoke anything that was put in front of them... They would just laugh and laugh at the "losers" that they trotted in for these "scared straight" seminars because, to them, "they were the losers who were stupid enough to get caught, or to wreck out, or to burn out and kill somebody, or to screw Typhoid Mary and get AIDS, or whatever..." They were "way too smart" to allow something like THAT to happen to THEM... that stuff happened to other LOSERS who didn't know how to handle their beer or pot or whatever... it'd never happen to THEM!

Now, maybe 1-2%, it might have actually made a difference. In a small school like ours, that might have amounted to about 1-2 kids at most. So is it worth it trying to 'educate' the masses with such a low rate of success?? Given the cost and consequences, yeah, probably so. Did it have ANY EFFECT WHATSOEVER on the 49% of dopers/drunks/f***heads in school that REALLY NEEDED IT?? Nope, none that I ever saw...

I had several classmates die while I was in high school, of drunk driving or drug-related stuff... I remember poor ol' Jordy particularly-- he was so drunk when he rolled his car he flipped out and sailed about probably 50 feet through the air and his car ended up sailing over a fence out into some brush-- folks went looking for him and didn't find him, til some duck hunters found him the next day-- face down in the mud and stiff as a board.

Those funerals were always particular head-shakers for me... the drunks and dopers would line up and weep over the casket and huddle and hug in their little groups, put on a good show basically... but did you think they would ever LEARN anything from it?? Nope, next weekend, its back to "get drunk and wasted and have a good time-- let's pop a top and raise a toast to ol' Jordy..."

Some things never change...

Later! OL J R :)