When I said this I got weird looks.. seems I was on the right track and now the big Important Folk are starting to " suggest " this alternative to Dubya and the UN thinkers [ yeah, there are some there ]..

Afghanistan is the UN's greatest ' test'..they cannot afford to fail there. " We haven't made Afghanistan's progress irriversible. Not yet..."

one reason why..

The gravest danger to this important project is that the foreign forces in Afghanistan come to be regarded not as saviours, but as invaders. One reason that this may happen has yet to receive proper attention. It lies in the agressive poppy-aeradication program promoted by the United States.
In addition to being ineffective, this program alienates the population and materially assists the Taliban. It is, moreover, the wrong policy, given the global shortage of essentiual painkillers - morphine and codeine - that are obtained from opium. The poppies are needed and, if properly regulated, could provide a legal source of income to impoverished Afghan farmers while, at the same time, depriving the drug lords and the Taliban of much of their income.

we don't need think tanks to tell us that crop eradication is a failure. The UN office of Drug and Crime reported that, despite years of sustained efforts to abolish it, the poppy crop in Afghanistan increased by nearly 60% in the past year.
The situation is worse in the south where Canadian troops are operating. There cultivation more than doubled. the illegal drug trade, estimated by the UN at $ 2.7 billion per year and constituting more than one third of Afghanistan's gross domestic product, threatens to drive the country inexorably from a narco-economy to a narco-state. moving the country from elected leaders to drug lords and their Taliban allies.. the current policy of NATO and the US seeks to destroy the poppies and punish the farmers.

Alternatively, a legalized, regulated poppy production in Afghanistan could supply the developing world with needed painkillers. By 2015 the EHO estimates there will be 10 million cancer cases per year in the developing world, in addition to the millions of cases of HIV/AIDS..the expected demand for opium-based medicines is a world crisis.
Traffic in these narcotics is licenced by the INCB This body points out thaty the richest nations US,UK, France, Japan Germany Australia and Canada cosume nearly all the world's opiates leaving 80% of the world virtually without. Afghan opiates could make up the shortfall [ actually, estimates of the need show that global demand would be double the current Afghan output..and

get this.. buying thev entire Afghan crop at current market price, set by the Afghan Drug lortds no less - $ 600 million - is less than the $ 780 million the US budgeted last year to wipe out the crop.

Buying poppies for legal use would send a much different message to the Afghan people instead of destroying their livlihood to prevent illegal use. Better for the farmers to get a legal sale.. no longer having to pay' protection' money to gangs.. It would allow the citizens to share in the benefits of a stable, law-based society..the very thing NATO and the US wants inm an elected government..

side benefit, of course would be the drying up of organized crime involvement internationally in the smuggling and transport of drugs and the effect of diluted and adulterated drugs on the street have on addicvts [of course there would bec a down side cost in treating all those users now bereft of ' Afghan gold ' but, small price that ]

All that is required for this to happen is for certain countries and international bodies to extend the privilege of legal production to Afghanistan...
extending the benefits of regulated poppy farming that other nations presently enjoy..

how hard can that be?

See: "Senlis Council" for details of ther full proposal

Rocketeer is now appointed Regimental Common Sense Officer.

As such, you are hereby banished to the corner and to be ignored from now on.