WAR IN
AFGHANISTAN
Afghanistan's Opium production
(via the Afghanistan Opium Survey 2010)
OPIUM AND THE WAR
A LOST CAUSE?
Although admittedly not as notorious as Colombia or Peru, Afghanistan is one of the greatest drug producing regions in the world. It has been the number one producer of opium for the last 20 years. While some might blame that on the governments prior to the American invasion, it appears that , by coincidence, this trend is likely to increase even more. After the conjuncture of events in the 2001 invasion, levels of opium production reached a record breaking 8,200 tons, in 2007, which indicates fighting opium production is low on the priorities list of the coalition and the new Afghan government. As opium production not only provides for a significant part of the Afghan GDP, but also enables the Taliban to sustain itself, opium cultivation in Afghanistan is likely to never quit growing unless the US and its allies intervene.
The 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan destabilized the social structure of the country, which allowed the opium production to grow at unprecedented rates. At the time, the USSR was concerned with drug trafficking from Afghanistan to Soviet territory, even speculating that the CIA was involved. As the war led to chaos, warlords flourished and opium started being used as a source of money for military equipment. According to Zbigniew Brzezinski, the United States of America were finally able to give the USSR an equivalent of the Vietnam War.
Considering the context, in the 80s, opium production switched countries, going from Pakistanto inside the Afghan territory. Contingent upon the withdrawal of the Soviet troops from the country, in 1989, there was a huge
power gap created inside the country.
Making it possible for the creation of many coalitions, gangs, that were disputing the leadership of the country and used the poppy fields to finance their war dispenses. According to Greenstein and his pool theory this power gap could have been the leading factor into the creation of coalitions and gangs disputing for the power over the poppy fields. The preventive invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR was essential in the development of the opium market in Afghanistan. Although many might have seen this invasion as a tactic of the United States, it did deeply change and affect the inner political organization of the country, allowing for the rise of warlords and local leaders.
Considering the powerful effect of drugs on the human organism, it is the cheap alternative for countries such as Afghanistan to gain fast and easy money. Having been involved in a war with the USA since 2001 the opium market has been one of the critical elements holding the economy of the country together, creating a hegemon, Niall Ferguson, in Afghanistan. Moving more than $4 billion in exports makes it very clear for the world that the drug market became a powerful weapon for terrorist organizations to organize and quickly gather immense quantities of resources. Reports from the United Nations say that Afghanistan produces more than 90% of he opium stock of he world, surpassing all its opponents, such as Burma, for example. Afghanistan has turned into a drug dealing country, where money has more value than human life, strong indicators is the amount of land used for the poppy fields, surpassing by far other countries such as Colombia, Peru, Bolivia and Burma.
The opium production in Afghanistan involves an entire historical context, it cannot only be based on the Afghanistan War, 2001-2013, it starts back with the Soviet Invasion, 1979, where the opportunity for the rise of power of poorly minded gangs was allowed. The conflict for power in Afghanistan was financed by the drug market and even until today is one of the easiest ways of getting fast money. Afghanistan became a fight in between the opium and the USA and USSR where the two last ones clearly had an advantage. Without any further and severe intervention there will be no reason for the country to stop its system. In order to save further victims of the drug dealing interventions to that region, the UN would have to be required and executed, and focus and on the “men in singular” (Hannah Arendt).