[AGAviator]

The "Afghanistan" you're speaking of is the part controlled by our new friends, the "Northern Alliance." In the Taliban-controlled areas there was an unprecedented drop in opium cultivation this last year, which even the communists were never able to accomplish.

You're also not factoring in different Central Asian countries, our other new friends, to cultivate opium on their own. There's no reason why it has to be grown in just Afghanistan. The entire Central Asian region from Tajikistan to Afghanistan to Iran to Turkey, is all capable of producing many tons of the drug. That's millions of square miles of territory.

[PoorMuttly]

Re:#19...yes, I do wonder about our "new friends." I know it's tough having your mortal butt against the wall....but we will have to see what they do after they have served our common purpose. They can fast become our ex-new friends, too. About the other opium-producing areas in the world...transporting the stuff, and destabilizing nations, is a form of bio-terrorism too, IMHO, and may, with other underworld connections, qualify for our new "coalition" partners' attentention. What say ye?