Posted by Ilya Somin:
Will the Obama Administration Change Policy so that the War on Drugs No Longer
Undermines the War on Terror?
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_02_22-2009_02_28.shtml#1235343065
Over the last two years, I have repeatedly blogged about how the War
on Drugs is undermining the War on terror in Afghanistan (see, e.g.,
[1]here, [2]here, [3]here, and [4]here). Recently, the Boston Globe
had [5]a good editorial summarizing the issue, and holding out a small
ray of hope that the Obama Administration might change things:
The Obama administration is committing 30,000 additional troops to
Afghanistan. Yet as the United States works to stabilize that
country, the most important decisions don't just involve troop and
funding levels. Also vital is ending the prohibition on growing
opium poppies - for the policy is a key factor in Afghanistan's
economic and security crisis.
Since the US invasion in 2001, the American and Afghan governments
have made the poppy-growing areas of Afghanistan, which produce 90
percent of the world's opium, a major front in the war on drugs.
Yet despite eight years of efforts to eliminate the crop, farmers
keep growing poppies, and the crop still reaches the black
market....
Eradication is not just an ineffective strategy, but also hurts the
security interests of Afghanistan and Western governments. While
the United States invests $1 billion in eradication efforts each
year, the Taliban profits by purchasing poppy from farmers who have
no one else to sell to, and selling it to the black market. Also,
the eradication policy fuels anti-Western hatred when farmers
become sympathetic to insurgent groups after the US and Afghan
governments burn or spray their only source of income.
The eradication policy remains in place even though it is widely
recognized as a failure. Richard Holbrooke, Obama's new envoy to
Afghanistan and Pakistan, last year called the eradication program
"the single most ineffective program in the history of American
foreign policy."
Holbrooke is the Admnistration's point man on Afghanistan and
Pakistan. I'm not holding my breath on this. But perhaps he could
persuade the President to finally end "the single most ineffective
program in the history of American foreign policy" and get on with
winning the war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The administration
has often emphasized that[6] winning the War on Terror in Afghanistan
will be its highest foreign policy priority. If it really is, he
should be willing to prioritize it ahead of poppy eradication. As the
Globe points out, [7]a strategy of partial legalization has
successfully deprived terrorists of income from illegal drugs in
Turkey, a policy enacted with US and NATO support.
Perhaps Obama can get the War on Drugs out of the way of the War on
Terror in Afghanistan as well. That would be a good example of real
change we can believe in.
References
1. http://volokh.com/posts/1215480214.shtml
2. http://volokh.com/posts/1187715526.shtml
3. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2006_12_03-2006_12_09.shtml#1165214721
4. http://www.volokh.com/posts/1150641230.shtml
5.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2009/02/17/wrong_front_for_the_drug_war/
6.
http://www.topnews.in/hillary-says-pakistan-afghanistan-will-be-obama-s-highest-priority-2109600
7. http://volokh.com/posts/1168991272.shtml
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