The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction showed that while the U.S. government spent billions to eradicate drugs in Afghanistan, much of that money was misspent and even helped opium farmers while doing little to affect Afghanistan’s ballooning drug problem.
“At the moment, Afghanistan’s narcotics economy is the elephant in the room that we ignore at our peril,” the report states.
Drug money directly supports the Taliban and other insurgent groups and undermines the Afghan government’s stability. Afghanistan produces 90 percent of the world’s opium, its largest cash crop, with opiates like morphine and heroin as its largest export.
“I think the Taliban always has used opium and illicit drugs as a means of financing its insurgency program either directly or indirectly through taxes on opium farmers, and to the degree to which that trade can be reduced you can reduce the Taliban finances,” James Phillips, senior research fellow for Middle Eastern Affairs at the Heritage Foundation, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
After ten years of fighting the Afghan drug war, the U.S. still hasn’t figured out how to win. In fact, they are not even improving.
Article Appeared @http://dailycaller.com/2014/11/10/government-botches-war-on-drugs-in-afghanistan-accidentally-funds-opium-farmers/