Summary
A SIMPLETON'S question: if the massed armies of America, Britain and their allies cannot get Afghans safely to the polls, what chance is there of extirpating the drugs industry on which a failed and corrupt state depends?
Last year, the West acquiesced in President Hamid Karzai's return to office despite abundant evidence of wholesale electoral fraud. Karzai is, after all, our bulwark against the Taliban, against terror, and against drugs. This year, as though to simplify matters, almost 900 polling stations will remain closed during next month's elections for Afghanistan's lower house. Their protection cannot be guaranteed.See the full content of this document
Extract
How to Lose the War On Drugs
So what can be guaranteed? Last week we recalled Tony Blair's attempt in 2001 to justify war on the Taliban - who had once banned the opium trade - as a front in the war on drugs. Subsequently, he and others would invoke democracy, development, the rights of women, the needs of children, health and education, regional stability, and the th...
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