Economic backwater.…..
Hardly. They’re now making meth. They already supply a substantial amount of the worlds heroin.
Soon, with their Chinese partners, they’ll be shipping that stuff by the shipload, to Mexico where it will walk across our border
They could become one of the biggest narco states the world has ever know.
You may not like how the money is being made but they’ll be making tons of it.
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First thing we should have done was salt bomb the opium fields.
Where do you think those poppies to produce heroin came from?
Back in the mid-40s to mid-50s, American engineers and hydrologists came to Afghanistan at the behest of the Afghan president to harness the powerful Helmand River in central Afghanistan.
They built dams and created lakes which they used for hydroelectric power to turn Afghanistan into a modern culture, much like FDR did in the US during his last term.
Once the dams were completed and the water started flowing to generate power, unintended consequences were created. The president started relocating his tribal people, Pashtuns, to the land that now could be farmed and grow crops.
But something unexpected happened. The water tables started to rise and the soil turned salty. One of the crops that grew well in this salty soil were poppies. With little else to grow to sustain their culture, they grew the poppies to make a living.
So it was America who were ultimately responsible for the appearance and growing of poppies, which were used to grow the largest heroin trade in the world.