Ain't it curious how US military involvements seem to ALWAYS somehow INCREASE opium production and sales?

Vietnam and the Golden Triangle, the war in Kosovo (opium gorwn, processed into heroin, and primary trans-shipment route for South Asian opium) etc. And when not opium, cocaine (Iran-Contra -- a gigantic coke deal from which American govt people bought Rolexes, Mercedes' and ultimately, the 2000 presidential election. And of course, the Taliban, for all their faults, DID stop opium production in Afghanistan. Lyndon LaRouche may be crazy but he was right about the Islamic Brotherhood / Opium traffic. (Of course, he just happens to fill his diatribes with the names of Jewish people and Organizations with Jewish names even more than Pat Buchanan or Pat Robertson. And never even mentions the Bush-Walker family, the 19th Century New England patricians, etc. Just an oversight due to lack of bandwidth, I guess.) Although he does manage to point towards England which might help explain why former Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush's poodle, was so willing to roll over and piddle on himself in submission. Couldn't let the USA get all that opium.

Another Record Poppy Crop in Afghanistan

- - - - - - - - - - - -

By MATTHEW LEE Associated Press Writer

August 04,2007 | WASHINGTON -- Afghanistan will produce another record poppy harvest this year that cements its status as the world's near-sole supplier of the heroin source, yet a furious debate over how to reverse the trend is stalling proposals to cut the crop, U.S. officials say.

As President Bush prepares for weekend talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, divisions within the U.S. administration and among NATO allies have delayed release of a $475 million counternarcotics program for Afghanistan, where intelligence officials see growing links between drugs and the Taliban, the officials said.

U.N. figures to be released in September are expected to show that Afghanistan's poppy production has risen up to 15 percent since 2006 and that the country now accounts for 95 percent of the world's crop, 3 percentage points more than last year, officials familiar with preliminary statistics told The Associated Press...