In what is seen as an enormous show of force in the ongoing battle between man and poppy seed, the United States military has dropped several tons of explosives on a field in the Helmand Province, destroying mounds of poppy seeds which had been gathered there.
Today’s air strikes were the latest, and likely most heavy-handed exercise of US military power in the war on drugs in Afghanistan, as the poppy seeds which have become a significant portion of Afghanistan’s largely agrarian economy often get exported for use in opium derivatives.
The attacks seem related to the US military’s massive offensive in the Helmand River Valley. Top NATO Commander General John Craddock has long sought to divert the military mission into a broader war on drugs, lashing out at allies who opposed his policies and ordering troops to kill anyone involved in the opium industry.
State Department official Tony Wayne says the attacks are part of the campaign to win the “hearts of minds” of Afghanistan’s civilian population. He claimed farmers were being “intimidated” into growing poppies instead of wheat, which the US has been attempting to subsidize as an alternative crop.
Has anyone checked that these poppy seeds weren't for culinary use? Normally to extract opium, an incision is made in the seed pod and the rubber-like sap that seeps from the incision is collected for further processing. While the seeds do contain opium it is in a low concentration. As for the seeds being used to plant further crops of opium poppies, it would make more sense for the farmers to collect the seeds they need from their current crop to be planted for the next season
Has anyone checked that these poppy seeds weren't for culinary use? Normally to extract opium, an incision is made in the seed pod and the rubber-like sap that seeps from the incision is collected for further processing. While the seeds do contain opium it is in a low concentration. As for the seeds being used to plant further crops of opium poppies, it would make more sense for the farmers to collect the seeds they need from their current crop to be planted for the next season. I can't help but feel that someone has cocked up again.
Hearts & Minds??? O. K., I'll switch to onion……..
You mean the same US government that is complicit in funding drug traffickers is making a huge effort/waste of tax dollars to pretend they are trying to help stop it?
http://www.amazon.com/Drugs-Oil-War-Afghanistan-Indochina/dp/0742525228
In the end President Obushama can claim victory against those fundamentalist poppies, the ancestors of the 19 hijackers that defeated the USA on 9/11.
FedGov forces bomb poppy seeds and Zionist settlers destroy olive groves. Sounds like the Empire's got a serious problem with agriculture.
You read about stuff like this and the conclusion is inescapable: Our government is run by morons. When does sanity make a comeback?