From Washington Post Article The Lost War: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/17/AR2007081701716.html?referrer=emailarticle 8/19/07 Poppies were the first thing that British army Capt. Leo Docherty noticed when he arrived in Afghanistan's turbulent Helmand province in April 2006. "They were growing right outside the gate of our Forward Operating Base," he told me. Within two weeks of his deployment to the remote town of Sangin, he realized that "poppy is the economic mainstay and everyone is involved right up to the higher echelons of the local government."