WikiLeaks' Afghan War Diary Details Lost Drug War
WikiLeaks’ just-released Afghan War Diary paints a picture of failed drug interdiction in the most drug-addled region on the globe. United States soldiers stop a negligible fraction of the tonnage of Afghan opium and cannabis grown in the region. Meanwhile profits from Afghanistan’s drug trade fuels the Taliban and the associated war, which has claimed thousands of civilian lives. Amid the 91,000 plus documents of the Afhan War Diary are just six reports classified as drug crimes.
Most notably, soldiers met with small arms fire from irate poppy farmers irritated about the U.S. crackdown on the country’s leading cash crops. Other times, the U.S. intercepted as much as 60 kilograms of heroin in one action. But the sum of drug crime reports indicate most of Afghanistan’s drug trade goes largely unchecked.
