‘Task Forcing’ Afghanistan
Registan has a great post on the dangers of what I’m calling “Task Forcing (121, 145, 626, 77)” Afghanistan.
Classic hunter/killer mission statement:
Fifty Afghans believed to be drug traffickers with ties to the Taliban have been placed on a Pentagon target list to be captured or killed, reflecting a major shift in American counternarcotics strategy in Afghanistan, according to a Congressional study to be released this week.
Excellent diagnosis:
The trouble is, killing the engine of Afghanistan’s rural economy doesn’t address the fundamental problem, which is that opium is an indicator, not a cause, of other, deeper issues like a lack of institutions, severe insecurity, and crap infrastructure.
Opium’s black market connectivity is the key. This is the blunt object approach to solving the problem though.
-Shlok
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