The easiest and most logical way to solve the Afghan débacle, is to let the Pashtuns harvest the poppies they are already growing, and sell them in a government market, to be used for the production of medicinal opiate derivatives and analgesics. These farmers would have something to do other than shoot at foreign soldiers, and the war would be over. They could make money legally, raise a family, and have a reason to live. The government would have a cash crop to help pay for the reconstruction of a country that has been at war for thirty years.
But that is unlikely to happen because big chemical companies don't want the extra competition. The excuses thrown to the media, however, conform to the current stance on drugs. We might have been a little distracted of late, but there still is a "War on Drugs".
So we are back to square one, the War on Terror, and Canada's military and humanitarian involvement in Afghanistan. There are three options here. Either this is a real war, which entails enacting conscription and shipping over one million troops to get this over with in a timely and decisive way. We can squat on Afghan soil with a brigade or two for the next hundred years with a slow painful stream of bloodletting, in which case we'll finally get tired of shipping our troops home in body bags, and bring them home. Or we pull our troops out now, and let the Americans fight their "war on terror" on their own. The choice is ours to make. I say we let our brave soldiers come home. What say you? What say our politicians?
But that is unlikely to happen because big chemical companies don't want the extra competition. The excuses thrown to the media, however, conform to the current stance on drugs. We might have been a little distracted of late, but there still is a "War on Drugs".
So we are back to square one, the War on Terror, and Canada's military and humanitarian involvement in Afghanistan. There are three options here. Either this is a real war, which entails enacting conscription and shipping over one million troops to get this over with in a timely and decisive way. We can squat on Afghan soil with a brigade or two for the next hundred years with a slow painful stream of bloodletting, in which case we'll finally get tired of shipping our troops home in body bags, and bring them home. Or we pull our troops out now, and let the Americans fight their "war on terror" on their own. The choice is ours to make. I say we let our brave soldiers come home. What say you? What say our politicians?
No comments:
Post a Comment