Surge In Afghanistan? Focus on the Taliban!

Although the drug trade is a significant economic issue in Afghanistan, the focus of the current surge and the operations in Marjah has clearly been on the Taliban, with drug enforcement taking a back seat.

Even by Afghan standards, it was a startling find: An opium packaging workshop, buried under donkey dung and old hay in a stable that U.S. Marines turned into a patrol base in southern Afghanistan.
Two U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration employees nosing around the base found more than two kilograms (4.4 pounds) of opium, five large bags of poppy seeds, some 50 sickles, jugs and a large scale for measuring opium.
When the Marines leave the compound this week, though, they won't detain the old, bearded Afghan man suspected of owning the hidden cache. Instead, they'll hand him $600 in rent for using his place as a base.
It's a story that illustrates the shift in strategy to stall the Taliban's momentum in Afghanistan. The more than 2-week-old military offensive on the town of Marjah — NATO's largest ever combined Afghan offensive — is a war on the Taliban, not drugs.
The opium workshop, on a compound near the entrance to the former Taliban-controlled town of Marjah, was found mostly out of luck and idleness.
"I just decided to start poking around," said Joe, who like his colleague, Jack, only went by his first name because they work for a DEA special intervention unit stationed in Afghanistan. "I've had plenty of time on my hands."
The two DEA agents, both bearded and wearing military fatigues, had been stuck on the compound in Helmand province for the past several days because every Marine convoy heading in and out of the area had struck a roadside bomb, knocking out armored vehicles and considerably delaying travel plans.
Their find went far beyond the staple signs of Marjah's booming opium business. In nearly every farmer's compound, Marines and the DEA have seen piles of dried poppy hay stacks, small doses of opium for local consumption and spent syringes.
"This cache shows that processing was taking place here on a pretty large scale," said Jack, pointing at the number of plastic spoons and ladles, indicating that up to 50 people could have been working here. Though quantities are uncertain, the makeshift asse

By: Brant