Quote from: le_blua on May 05, 2013, 09:23 pmbump threadhttp://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/look-on-the-bright-side-theres-a-roaring-heroin-trade-in-afghanistan-and-its-all-thanks-to-us-8601260.html clearnetQuoteAt last, amid all the bleak news that comes from Afghanistan, theres a success story to justify the British and American presence there. Because one of the main aims of Western intervention in foreign affairs is to establish the sort of small-business, entrepreneurial spirit that can rescue a struggling economy. And according to the United Nations, theres been another 18 per cent growth in the heroin trade, in just the past year.It goes to show that, even in the most difficult circumstances, with a popular product and thoughtful marketing, there are always business opportunities for those with a flair for entrepreneurial vision. At the time of the initial invasion in 2001, Tony Blair insisted that one of the reasons for occupying Afghanistan was because the Taliban are causing the deaths of young British people who buy their drugs on the streets. But clearly some people misunderstood what Blair meant. They were saying that the Afghan heroin trade wasnt fulfilling its potential, and with the right management they could treble it.It will probably turn out Blair is getting 4m a year to sit on an advisory board to help them maximise growth. Spokesmen from companies with names like Kwik-Fix Global will appear on the business section of Sky News, explaining how their quarterly report reveals a 35 per cent rise in dividends, boasting about surveys that show that the Afghan brand earns positive feedback with 95 per cent of junkies, and hinting at diversification into other markets such as its own brand of needles so customers can enjoy the full Afghan warlord poppy experience.Maybe the plan is that, by the time British troops leave, every district of Afghanistan has a thriving garden centre, where couples from Helmand province can potter around on a Sunday, arguing about which seeds will produce the most effective skag and enquiring about how to set up a poppy rockery.Then therell be an Afghan Gardeners Question Time, with the audience asking: This year, my poppy window-box became susceptible to mildew around springtime, so the opium was disappointingly soggy and hard to burn in the spoon. Has the panel any suggestions for how to prevent a recurrence? It could be claimed that the growth in heroin production would be even greater if the occupying forces hadnt been in the country. But this would be to deny them the credit theyre due. Because it was also revealed this week that the office of Afghan leader Harmid Karzai has been regularly receiving envelopes stuffed with cash from the CIA, for the past 11 years. The New York Times reported that the money has come in backpacks, suitcases and plastic bags. The allegations are denied by a Foreign Ministry spokesman, but Karzai explained the purpose of these payments was to secure the support of those leaders who have been loyal. One of the other reasons for the invasion, you may recall, was to stamp out corruption. That makes sense, because you cant stamp out corruption without the support of honest, reliable officials, and you cant expect them to stay honest and reliable for nothing so it makes sense to hand them envelopes stuffed with cash every couple of weeks.The people the money has been handed to are local warlords, who wont stay loyal unless theyre also allowed to carry on their legitimate business of growing poppies, so it all completes a neat business circle. To make it seem even more like a typical business arrangement, some of them have complained that the amount that the local farmers receive for their poppies is only 1 per cent of the eventual market value. Youd think that at least our Government would insist on an ethical poppy policy, encouraging dealers to pay a decent price so they could stand behind the bins on a council estate wearing a sticker saying All our smack is Fairtrade, next to a picture of a smiling warlord. Once you add in the other reasons for occupying the place, the scale of the occupations success becomes even clearer. There was the Talibans appalling record on human rights, whereas Saudi Arabia, with which weve just concluded a 15bn arms deal, is just a constant hubbub of feminist this and lesbian that. It is so liberal that its the only country where women get no extra penalty if theyre caught drinking and driving, as they get put in jail for either so they might as well do both at the same time. And the invasion was supposed to stop Afghanistan being a centre for al-Qaida, which has gone exceedingly well. Because now Afghanistan is only one place for the militant Islamist organisation, as theyve grown in Iraq, Iran, Syria, Mali, and a variety of places where they didnt exist before. Once theyve taken control of Dorset County Council, I suppose the job will be complete.When British and US forces first occupied Kabul in 2001, there was jubilation from those whod supported the invasion, especially those who saw it as a humanitarian policy. Some day soon, I suppose theyll accept it hasnt all gone to plan as much as they thought. Or they might stick it out, following the Governments line that were leaving because weve done an excellent job, and now the Afghans weve been giving stuffed envelopes to have learned enough from us that they can carry on from here. If only Napoleon had thought of this tactic. He could have said: Right, its all gone very well, but, if you Russians dont mind, weve got other stuff to get on with, so youre jolly well going to have to get on without us. Bye then, thanks for having us.QFTExactly the sort of contempt our western leaders deserve for this epic clusterfuck. As Machiavelli would appreciate, there is something worse than being unpopular for a nation state, and that is being seen as being utterly incompetent. If our modern day Praetorian guard actually had any balls they would have executed the upper echelon of the previous administrations for treason. In fact that can still happen.It comes down to this: what is the practical difference between fucking up on purpose and fucking up through inability to function? There isn't one. The result is the same. Libertarians, despite not usually having a country specific nationalism in common with the military, think in similar ways, we both think that discipline is necessary for freedom e.g. the freedom to take heroin does not imply you should take it. Pleasure is not the highest goal in life by a long shot.The socialists are always afraid of a military dictatorship, with reasonable cause too. It can turn into a bloodbath. But they often overlook the fact that the central reason why practically every military dictatorship comes into existence is because the central administration is seen as weak, ineffectual, treasonous by default through ineptitude. It is very easy to argue that there have been times in history where a military dictatorship was preferable to the alternative. Democracy supporters find such a topic abhorrent, but military dictatorships have become democracies before now. The history of the world is not an easy reading for an unsophisticated democrat.Putting it as bluntly as possible: if the democracy camp does not manage to get its shit together in the USA and UK, the far right wing is going to do it for them. This is a hypothesis with great explanatory power for the changes in politics over the last few years. To reiterate, Pine is not a nationalist and stands by the non-aggression principal as the line in the sand, but this is just how it is on the world stage, the world does not share my philosophy. This is the logic the West is trending towards more and more. Guantanamo Bay and other secret prisons the previous democracy based administrations have built are an absolute abomination on the face of the West. It goes against all our cultural values, including that of our armed forces. Either the enemy dies honorably on the field of battle when he doesn't surrender, or he is captured and given a strict but fair military trial. Again, I will be blunt. The ONLY reason we have that concentration camp is democracy. All data supports that claim.Our armed forces from the ground floor to the highest echelons of strategic cognition are in an awful catch-22. They have accomplished their jobs with great skill, their institutions have by and large done precisely what they are supposed to. To anybody who takes umbridge at this: the object of the armed forces and their strategic masters can only be either defense or invasion. Keeping the peace, making the economy prosper and all those infinite other necessaries is simply way out of their jurisdiction. To make them responsible for these others is tantamount to encouraging them to think about politics, which isn't their job, but which they are almost certainly going to now think it is. I mean Jesus Christ, just join the dots, the consequences of putting a military force in charge of governance overseas should not be rocket science. You think those patterns wouldn't reestablish themselves when they are back on home territory? Of course they will, it's just a matter of time. Bush and Blair have laid down the seeds for the potential future destruction of their countries.