by Tom Brend

Created on: September 14, 2009   Last Updated: September 18, 2009

Afghan officials often show the destruction of illegal poppy fields to western press officials as only a medial sign of how Afghan law enforcement fights the drug trade. But behind the scenes local governors and commanders profiteer from the drug trade. Often these local powers only vow to fight the Taliban over drug stakes. It is now a popular known fact that the military and social success of the Taliban, their terrorist allies and other warlord factions is deeply intertwined with the international drug business. Morally, the Taliban have no problem with the drug trade, they see themselves only catalyzing the inevitable downfall of corrupt western society with drugs that float our very streets today: Morphine, Codeine, Thebaine and of course Heroine and its derivates. It is indeed true that the drug problem reflects one of the darker sides of freedom in western society: The freedom to destroy your life with such substances. One could even polemically say that our junkies pay for international terrorism.

The poetic allusions aside, the fact remains that Afghanistan is the top worldwide producer of opium with 87% of total output worldwide1). On a nationwide scale in Afghanistan quantitatively poppy fields were decreased in recent years, productivity of the remaining fields has increased. The Taliban earned an estimated $400-500 million 2008 with the drug trade2), through which they not only finance their campaign against NATO forces, but also fund their social programs in the region which makes recruiting new fighters easy for the Taliban. And even after the troop surge in the region ordered by US President Obama the Taliban for now stay in control of the most profitable opium region, Helmand. Over a half of the Afghanistan's opium production stems out of this region, although military efforts in the region have recently cut down production areas by a third4). Still, there is a large stockpile in the region and the real output of opiates is unknown, which could still be the same through productivity increases.

In conventional battles, NATO forces often win against the Taliban if they're on offensive, planned operations. The Taliban suffer, as usual in such operations, high casualties. But the rate of killing the insurgents, as the Vietnam era has shown, will not turn the momentum of social approval around. Not for the Afghans, not for the coalition forces. The Taliban only have to kill one or a few more soldiers to deal a huge blow to public opinion in European

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