Marines ignore Taliban cash crop to not upset Afghan locals

AP on Yahoo ^ | 5/6/08 | Jason Straziuso - ap

[NormsRevenge]

GARMSER, Afghanistan - The Marines of Bravo Company's 1st Platoon sleep beside a grove of poppies. Troops in the 2nd Platoon playfully swat at the heavy opium bulbs while walking through the fields. Afghan laborers scraping the plant's gooey resin smile and wave.

Last week, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit moved into southern Helmand province, the world's largest opium poppy-growing region, and now find themselves surrounded by green fields of the illegal plants that produce the main ingredient of heroin.

The Taliban, whose fighters are exchanging daily fire with the Marines in Garmser, derives up to $100 million a year from the poppy harvest by taxing farmers and charging safe passage fees — money that will buy weapons for use against U.S., NATO and Afghan troops.

Yet the Marines are not destroying the plants. In fact, they are reassuring villagers the poppies won't be touched. American commanders say the Marines would only alienate people and drive them to take up arms if they eliminated the impoverished Afghans' only source of income.

Many Marines in the field are scratching their heads over the situation.

"It's kind of weird. We're coming over here to fight the Taliban. We see this. We know it's bad. But at the same time we know it's the only way locals can make money," said 1st Lt. Adam Lynch, 27, of Barnstable, Mass.

The Marines' battalion commander, Lt. Col. Anthony Henderson, said in an interview Tuesday that the poppy crop "will come and go" and that his troops can't focus on it when Taliban fighters around Garmser are "terrorizing the people."

"I think by focusing on the Taliban, the poppies will go away," said Henderson, a 41-year-old from Washington, D.C. He said once the militant fighters are forced out, the Afghan government can move in and offer alternatives.

An expert on Afghanistan's drug trade, Barnett Rubin, complained that the Marines are being put in such a situation by a "one-dimensional" military policy that fails to integrate political and economic considerations into long-range planning.

"All we hear is, not enough troops, send more troops," said Rubin, a professor at New York University. "Then you send in troops with no capacity for assistance, no capacity for development, no capacity for aid, no capacity for governance."

Most of the 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan operate in the east, where the poppy problem is not as great. But the 2,400-strong 24th Marines, have taken the field in this southern growing region during harvest season.

In the poppy fields 100 feet from the 2nd Platoon's headquarters, three Afghan brothers scraped opium resin over the weekend. The youngest, 23-year-old Sardar, said his family would earn little money from the harvest.

"We receive money from the shopkeepers, then they will sell it," said Sardar, who was afraid to give his last name. "We don't have enough money to buy flour for our families. The smugglers make the money," added Sardar, who worked alongside his 11-year-old son just 20 yards from a Marine guard post, its guns pointed across the field.

Afghanistan supplies some 93 percent of the world's opium used to make heroin, and the Taliban militants earn up to $100 million from the drug trade, the United Nations estimates. The export value of this harvest was $4 billion — more than a third of the country's combined gross domestic product.

Though they aren't eradicating poppies, the Marines presence could still have a positive effect. Henderson said the drug supply lines have been disrupted at a crucial point in the harvest. And Marine commanders are debating staying in Garmser longer than originally planned.

Second Lt. Mark Greenlief, 24, a Monmouth, Ill., native who commands the 2nd Platoon, said he originally wanted to make a helicopter landing zone in Sardar's field. "But as you can see that would ruin their poppy field, and we didn't want to ruin their livelihood."

Sardar "basically said, 'This is my livelihood, I have to do what I can to protect that,'" said Greenlief. "I told him we're not here to eradicate."

The Taliban told Garmser residents that the Marines were moving in to eradicate, hoping to encourage the villagers to rise up against the Americans, said 2nd Lt. Brandon Barrett, 25, of Marion, Ind., commander of the 1st Platoon.

In the next field over from Sardar's, Khan Mohammad, an Afghan born in Helmand province who lives in Pakistan and came to work the fields, said he makes only $2 a day. He said the work is dangerous now that Taliban militants are shooting at the U.S. positions.

"We're stuck in the middle," he said. "If we go over there those guys will fire at us. If we come here, we're in danger, too, but we have to work," said the 54-year-old Mohammad, who supports a family of 10.

An even older laborer, his back bent by years of work, came over and told the small gathering of Afghans, Marines and journalists that the laborers had to get back to work "or the boss will get mad at us."

Staff Sgt. Jeremy Stover, whose platoon is sleeping beside a poppy crop planted in the interior courtyard of a mud-walled compound, said the Marines' mission is to get rid of the "bad guys," and "the locals aren't the bad guys."

"Poppy fields in Afghanistan are the cornfields of Ohio," said Stover, 28, of Marion, Ohio. "When we got here they were asking us if it's OK to harvest poppy and we said, 'Yeah, just don't use an AK-47.'"

[NormsRevenge]

I’m not sure what else is growable in those conditions and at such a profit or benefit to the local population supposedly, it would look to be a pretty rugged environment, I could be wrong re: other crops and their viability.

It’s much the same situation in a way to some South
American countries with coca. It is also a bit of a tradition too. Man has his good vices and his bad.

If we ‘neutralized’ the Bolivia and South American and Afghanistan growing areas, how much would it affect the global market amd demand? One would hope it was significant and it would be if I recall correctly.

[Captain Rhino]

Gee...$2.00 a day and stuck between the Taliban and the Marines.

Why don’t we do what we did with the Iraqi insurgents in Al Anbar province? Rebrand them as the “Sons of Iraq” (or whatever), pay them a small but steady wage, and have them help us find the hardcore jihadis?

[TheGunny]

how so?

[frankenMonkey]

I don't want our armed forces fighting the "war on drugs."
They have their hands full already.

[Names Ash Housewares]

Wouldn’t it make more sense to just pay them more to grow something else that is useful?
I mean it is probabbly chump change in the big picture to do that.

Or am I totally missing something?

[NormsRevenge]

It’s been tried before to some degree. the supply will go away if the demand does. it’s a tough nut to crack.

[mad_as_he$$]

This policy is industrial strength dumb. Plain and simple. We could easily PAY every farmer in Afcrapistan FOUR times what they would make off poppies to NOT plant anything and they would be money ahead and so would we. The Towelaban would be SOL. This will be the next CIA in drugs story in 20 years.

[Bender2]

Re: I don’t think Chesty would mind, he didn’t mind troublemakers - one of his quotes: “Take me to the Brig. I want to see the real Marines.”

Me thinks you have your apples and oranges mixed up!

The 'troublemakers' of that time were not heroin addicts. They were rebellious lifers in the Corps, hard drinkers, men who liked to fight for the hell of it and go their own way when that little wiry hair of their's wanted to see the sun. Those were the 'troublemakers' Chesty called real Marines.

I doubt very seriously that Chesty Puller would approve the drug trade or allowing poppy fields to grow and be processed into an illegal substance to kill Americans at home from addiction and then using the ill gotten funds for more Taliban weapons to the Marines in Afghanistan.

Assuming the 'SF' means San Fran... maybe it is time for you to not listen to your neighbors! Their views on drugs appear to be rubbing off on you.

[B4Ranch]

I know that a plan such as this would put a lot of doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers, EMT'S, helicopter pilots, cops, prison guards, judges, clerical staff, lobbyists, etc out of work. The effect on our national economy could be quite severe. So I can comprehend the reluctance to utilize brains before dollars. I am afraid it has a slim chance of ever being implemented in our lifetimes.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Upset with the current candidates?

If I Were President

[Nate505]

I doubt it would work that way. If Afghanistan is a major supplier of opium, and they all of a sudden quit growing it the supply would shorten for the stuff. All of a sudden the price for opium would increase to the point that it still would be worth it to the farmers to plant it even if the US was paying them 4x to not grow it.

[mad_as_he$$]

Maybe but it was tried early on and was successful in several provinces. the other thing that was done was bribes with sheep. Very cheap compared to military operations.

[Rebelbase]

“I’d lay decent odds that we could buy the entire Afghanistan crop and come out money ahead on criminal and medical costs here at home. Then teach the natives to grow another crop, such as corn or wheat.”

Sounds like a good idea but illegal production would just shift to other countries with climate suitable for poppy growth.

[avacado]

"Actually the War on Drugs predates the War on Terror by several decades. The WOD is essentially a war on some plants..."

...And the WOD is flat out retarded which we have never won. Kill the Taliban. Forget the plants.

[B4Ranch]

Maybe so.

[SF Republican]

The 'troublemakers' of that time were not heroin addicts. I missed the part of the article that discussed Marine heroin addicts.

[SF Republican]

Assuming the 'SF' means San Fran... maybe it is time for you to not listen to your neighbors! Their views on drugs appear to be rubbing off on you. I do not discuss or listen to my neighbors views on drugs, why do you make such an asinine statement? I said nothing about drugs in any of my posts.

[Mercia]

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/BritishTroopsHelpUsMarinesTackleTheTalibanInGarmsir.htm

A quick link showing the joint effort involved in the operation. Pushing the Taliban further south, can only be a good thing. We have needed these troops on the ground for a year or more.

[Bender2]

Re My: "Assuming the 'SF' means San Fran... maybe it is time for you to not listen to your neighbors! Their views on drugs appear to be rubbing off on you." Your: I do not discuss or listen to my neighbors views on drugs, why do you make such an asinine statement? I said nothing about drugs in any of my posts.

That was a joke (Which must have whirled past the top of your head!) and furthermore you began this on Post #10 by saying, I don’t think Chesty would mind, he didn’t mind troublemakers - one of his quotes: “Take me to the Brig. I want to see the real Marines.” thus inferring that Chesty Puller would have approved of Marines not halting the drug trade while the Taliban is using drug funds to addict Americans at home and buy more weapons to kill Marines and other US troops in Afghanistan.

So, in the future, old sport, read and comprehend the words and meaning of those words you write as they may show you are the asinine one in this conversation!

[SF Republican]

I agree with your tagline.

[SF Republican]

I agree with your tagline.