This story on Afghanistan's drug trade reminded me [View All]

[LittleClarkie]

of how right John Kerry was on alot of issues. I plan to keep track of the news stories that show this: sort of an "I told you so" watch.

Today's story came from the NYT on Saturday:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/19/international/asia/19afghanistan.html

I read in Kerry's book, "A New War" that one of the things Kerry wanted to fight terrorism was cut off it's funding through the sale of drugs. I believe he cited Afghanistan's trade specifically.

"Afghan Poppy Growing Reaches Record Level, U.N. Says
By CARLOTTA GALL

Published: November 19, 2004

ABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 18 - Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, the source of most of the opium and heroin on Europe's streets, was up sharply this year, reaching the highest levels in the country's history and in the world, the United Nations announced on Thursday.

"In Afghanistan, drugs are now a clear and present danger," said Antonio Maria Costa, director of the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, on the release of the 2004 Afghanistan opium survey. "The fear that Afghanistan might degenerate into a narco-state is becoming a reality."
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Afghan officials and foreign diplomats called the sharp rise in cultivation and production a major failure for President Hamid Karzai and the international effort to counter narcotics.

More than 321,236 acres of land were planted with poppy in 2004, a 64 percent increase over last year, the United Nations survey found. Poppy has spread to every province in the country, it said.

It was only by chance that drought and disease ravaged much of the crop and prevented the harvest from exceeding the all-time high, the report said. The harvest in 2004 was estimated at 4,200 metric tons, an increase of 17 percent from last year.

The scale of poppy cultivation is particularly alarming, because of the growing stranglehold wealthy traffickers and drug lords hold over farmers, and their influence over the economy and government, Afghan officials and foreign experts said.

The income from production and trafficking of opium in 2004 was estimated at $2.8 billion, equivalent to about 60 percent of the country's legal gross domestic product, or more than a third of the total economy, the report said.

If the drug problem persists, "the political and military successes of the last three years will be lost," Mr. Costa said in a preface to the report. There are indications that Al Qaeda and the Taliban are profiting from the Afghan trade, the report said."

I definitely would have felt safer in the world with John Kerry in office. Even when he talks like a hawk, I believe he does so with good reason. (where DID my inner hippy go?)