You hear it over and over again in every similar situation - the common person simply wants security for him and his family (in this part of the world, it is always "him"). That is a universal given. But when the Afghani pleads for security, it is not just from death from the sky, but more so for the security of his market economy and the stability of his food source - opium. The only way to provide this security is to embrace the opium business and protect it, something tribal Warlords can do with a compliant state government of any persuasion - a circle western ideologues have absolutely no chance of squaring.
We in the west are embarking on a tortured debate on the future of our interests in the Afghanistan debacle. This involves the consideration of an exponential multitude of geopolitical interests, military chest thumping, and inane ideological babbling. Virtually all of it pointless unless the economic interests of a subsistence economy (where opium is the reserve currency and store of value), are satisfied. No viable solutions to anybodies problems are possible unless the liberal democracies of the west can come to grips with the forces of free markets in Afghanistan they allegedly represent.
More than anywhere else in the world, Afghanistan represents the collision of democracy, liberalism, free markets...and ideological hypocrisy. Heroin is destroying millions of satisfied customers, the supply chain enriching a rope line of banks, small businessmen, entrepreneurs, and farmers. The resource point is a single place on earth where the stability of a deadly crop alone dictates the fortunes of empires, past present, and future. Destroy the crop and suffer generations of endless war, suffering, and potential nuclear events. Embrace the crop, and bankrupt one hundred years of moral sermonizing in the teeth of a culture itching to destroy another pillar of western imperialism.
More soldiers... ?
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