Wait a minute. Is it just me or does anyone else see the inherent absurdity of this headline from the August 10 edition of the New York Times: "U.S. to Hunt Down Afghan Drug Lords Tied to Taliban."
My, my. The War On Terror may be over… well, renamed… but the War On Drugs sure has spread. I wonder if there ever will be an end to it. Either way, Drug Lords! For shame, Uncle Scam better get some of those Special Forces dudes in there toot sweet and take ’em out pronto! Can’t have heroin flooding our impoverished and neglected ghettos of forgotten and disposable people now can we? And God forbid that Afghan Drug Lords are funding the Taliban!
And that my friends is exactly where the absurdity lies.
Just what is the Taliban? Silly question? Not at all. By this point in time most Americans think of the Taliban as those radical Islamofacists who perpetrated 911. Hardly. That was another group, not the Taliban. Way back when the evil USSR commie pinkos were bogged down in Afghanistan threatening the free world, the Taliban was heralded as "Freedom Fighters" by our omnipotent and wise Executive Branch. Let’s see was that during the days of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan or both? Oh who cares? But now, they are evil threats to the free world. Gosh, I wonder what changed their minds? Maybe it was… the drugs?
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Just to brush up on our Afghanistan history a bit, the Soviet Union spent a heap of time, money and lives to control Afghanistan. It didn’t work out. They cut their loses and high-tailed it for Siberia. Chaos ensued as usually happens when an occupying force tucks its tail between its legs and makes a run for it. Out of the ashes the Taliban triumphed! Yeah! Freedom was victorious! Law and order returned! AND… the Afghan heroin industry was shut down completely.
Say what? No smack? Nope. It was tough times for many a blithering junkie quaking and sweating in back alleys all across America and the free world. How could this happen?
Simple, as we all know or should know if we keep up on our infotainment propaganda, the Taliban are hard core Islamic fundamentalists who adhere to a strict form of Shariah, Islamic Law. You see… that’s why we are told they are evil. Hm… I wonder about that too. But what does Shariah say about drugs? Let me explain as simply as I can. According to Shariah, intoxicating substances are strictly verboten! Good devout Muslims do NOT get hammered at the Meat Market Swill Hole downtown every Friday night! And surprise, surprise, they do not blow coke, smoke dope and shoot smack.
Drugs are something the Taliban has taken a very serious and very dim view of. Given their devotion to fundamentalist Islam, I doubt that opinion is ever likely to change.
And now according to a Pentagon report to the Senate, Afghan Drug Lords are channeling money to… the Taliban? And the Taliban are taking it? I find this a real stretch of the imagination.
True, there is a saying in the Middle East that: "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Okay, well, the U.S. Armed forces in Afghanistan are certainly enemies of both the Drug Lords and the Taliban so… I suppose for the time being, it’s just possible the Taliban are accepting dirty drug money to fund their resistance. It’s possible. And I suppose it’s possible the Drug Lords who have been more in cahoots with The Northern Alliance, "the good guys" formerly known as: "the bad guys," have now switched sides. It’s possible the Afghan Drug Lords now are rooting for the exact group of people who will chop off their heads for trafficking in a substance specifically prohibited in the Qur’an; The Taliban. It’s possible.
It’s also possible the big bailouts will save the economy; Health Care will be reformed… or created to be more honest; I will get cash for my clunker and end up with a good car instead of another clunker. But… it’s more possible all the Pentagon brains behind this Drug Lord—Taliban connection have been dancing around brainless in the world of the poppy fields.
