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US and NATO casualties in Afghanistan jumped sharply this week as some 4,000 US Marines and 650 Afghan army troops poured into Helmand province, Afghanistan's largest producer, which supplies more than half of the world's opium by itself. According to the war monitoring site icasualties.org least 23 US and NATO soldiers were killed in fighting this week, although not all the casualties came from Helmand.
war-torn Afghanistan (photo by Chronicle editor Phil Smith, 2005)
NATO and US military commanders have warned that this year's offensives against a Taliban insurgency flush with opium and heroin funds would be bloody, and they've been right. So far this year, 179 coalition troops have been killed, a pace that will easily eclipse last year's record 254 coalition deaths. In fact, each year since 2003 has seen a new record number of US and NATO troops killed.
Some 1,224 coalition troops have been killed in Afghanistan since the US invaded in late 2001. The US leads the casualty count with 728 killed, followed by Great Britain with 176, and Canada with 124. Several other NATO countries, including France, Germany, and Spain, have had dozens of troops killed.
As the center of opium production in Afghanistan and a stronghold of the Taliban, Helmand is a key battleground in the Afghan war. Unlike previous years, when the Western presence in Helmand was light and fleeting, this time the Marines are there to stay in a bid to woo the local population, provide security, and allow for the establishment of effective government
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Key to winning popular support in Helmand is the new US strategy of ignoring poppy cultivation. Instead of alienating farmers by destroying their crops, the West will concentrate on traffickers and traders linked to the Taliban. It is a smarter strategy than eradication, but whether it is a smart strategy -- whether it will work -- remains to be seen.
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Comments
Troop Losses
The Russians spent ten years in Afghanistan: 300,000 troops, 30,000 deaths............
And achieved absolutely nothing.
Just what do we expect to achieve?
Nobody in the UK with any sense believes we are there for anything other than the oil/pipeline protection.
The last time the UK was in Afghanistan, the mid 1800's, they slaughtered the entire contingent of some 2,000 men, women and children, leaving one person alive, the Army Doctor, who returned with the story............. we left: only the stupidity of Bush and Blair could have put us back there....................
Failed attempts at winning hearts and minds, failed alternative crop provision, now failed poppy erradication attempts....... its all failure.
Does anybody really believe wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are doing anything other than increasing the possibility of responsive terror attacks?
Afghanistan and democracy are an unlikely partnership............... nobody has won against them, period.
New crop for Aufgehenundstehen
I remember in the 70's, before the USA mussolinied in and brought about the heroin plague with the help of Brezhnev and bin Laden, that Afghanistan produced a tangy black hashish, Schimmelafghan as it was known in Berlin because of a white mold found on the outside of the cakes.
Now what would happen if the USA matured politically, reversed its pro-tobacco habit (guess who really hates cannabis and uses US military power to enforce its drug on the planet), legalized cannabis, and sent advisors to Afghanistan to help the farmers switch from poppies to hemp plantations and set up THC-refining studios loading the golden honey oil into E-CIGARETTE cartridges to be shipped worldwide? (Hashish is obsolete, it was just a convenient way of smuggling the THC, nobody needs to smoke anything any more.)
How about drastic economic recovery, Witschaftswunder, permanent end to civil war and need for military intervention? (Just dreamin', folks)
By the way, besides providing the above service, the Afghans could use GAIH (government-approved industrial hemp) as a precursor crop to reforest their country. Objective: by year 2222 (in honor of Pete Rose and Al Capone) at least 100-foot-high forest on 95% of all land in Afghanistan (in line with worldwide standards). A population of 500,000 orangutans eating from 400 species of fruit trees and harvesting deadwood branches for composting, carpentry and manufacturing by means of anvil pruner, ratchet pruner, handsaw and hatchet, worn on the belt as they climb the towering monarchs. Let's get busy yesterday, everybody!
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