The narcotics angle regarding Afghanistan is the only one that makes sense. It’s not a particularly strategic location militarily, and they have no oil.
...Opium poppy, 12% morphine and codeine, legally produced in the US. Can be synthesized into heroin, the most powerful pain killer, illegal in the US, but, legally produced in the UK. Marijuana, another drug, effective as a cure for many after effects of other drugs taken for diseases, illegal. If there is anything that socialism, as in the UK, can give us it’s legalize these drugs. other than that, I have no use for the UK, except to visit...
...If most drugs are legally produced, legalize all of them...