U.S. Marines, from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, patrols through a poppy field near the town of Garmser in Helmand Province of Afghanistan Thursday May 1, 2008. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
U.S. Marines, from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, patrols through a poppy field near the town of Garmser in Helmand Province of Afghanistan Thursday May 1, 2008. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
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.’”
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Godspeed to you, Sgt., and all your fellow Marines.
A simple act of defiance would make this irrelevant.If Americans would stop using heroin - it wouldn’t be a problem. Same for inner city crack users, etc., etc., etc.
Chesty Puller is rolling over in his grave!
Perhaps it is time to send less food aid. Increased demand for domestically grown crops would mean less arable land devoted to poppies, no?
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.