Posted on 09/26/2007 6:15:15 PM PDT by SevenMinusOne
DARPA (the Pentagon's research outfit) has developed a genetically-engineered chemical that prevents poppy plants from germinating and is harmless to humans, animals, and other plants. It can be sprayed at high altitude over large areas. It will wipe out most all poppy production in Afghanistan within one growing season. The CIA is making maniacal efforts to prevents its use.
I would not dismiss this too quickly. There have been several reports about similar problems, especially in the first days in Afghanistan. The “heavy metal” commanders always want to expand a mission until it becomes unwieldly and takes too long to set up. The SOF types don’t like this since it really takes away a lot of what makes them really effective.
shield, if you don’t think that doing that would turn into the next agent orange, chem trail, black helicopter and endless pr campaign against the US then you don’t know our enemy. Things like this are always harmless to humans until they figure out it isn’t.
We need to bring Stan into those programs of growing legal opium (which I believe the UN oversees) increase the levels of which will be legally purchased from Stan. We also need to implement a system of showing Afghani farmers other crops to grow (in order to make a living). And this is occurring. But the reality is bringing Stan out of the dark ages is not (was not) going to be fully accomplished in 5 or 6 years. Those who think such (or foolishly demand such) are fools.
The progress in Stan over the past 5 years is d*mn incredible. The clear and remarkable successes over the past 12 months are one of the biggest ignored realities by the MSM.
Yes, I’m sure you’re right...
It is unbelievable how well the war in 'Stan is going...and few know it due to the blackout by the hateful msm. The hateful msm will NOT report it 'cause it will prove how right President Bush was and is. And the success of that war is way to positive...since the msm is part of the doom and gloom crowd.
Umm... they are called ODAs....
“One of the reasons (valid) some don’t just want to go in and destroy all the Stan poppy fields is because this how a sizable segment of regular Afghanis make their money. You rid them of their lively hood and they are going to join the anti-Gov’t types (Taliban/AQ elements). Again, this is a complete different way of life from the West. One cannot overnight change a culture.”
Not to mention the fact that the Warlords control Afghanistan. Everyone, including us, has to work with them to some degree. Killing the cash crops of the Warlords would be suicide by any nation trying to achieve anything productive in Afghanistan. That doesn’t sit well with some, but it’s a fact of life. Just as we’ve seen in Iraq with Tribal Leaders. We know that we have to work with them to some degree in order to achieve our desired results.
“I would not dismiss this too quickly. There have been several reports about similar problems”
I don’t dismiss that scenarios of coordination can exist, but I do dismiss the report itself. It reads like a set of Tom Clancy footnotes, only they’re using all the wrong terms (lol). Maybe they knew this an purposely replaced them with incorrect ones? (sarc)
“Another official said that intelligence analysts believed strongly that there was a high probability that “either HVT-1 or HVT-2 was there,” using U.S. intelligence descriptions — high value targets — for Bin Laden and Zawahiri.”
Who else thought those 2 were near Tora Bora at that time?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.