Quote:Why would the Taliban destroy the thing that pays for their existence?

 

The Taliban were strictly anti-drug even though opium is the only cash crop in Afghanistan.  Since the U.S. got there and largely drove the Taliban into Pakistan, the Taliban has survived partly by processing raw opium,  The Bush administration had an eradication program but Obama did not renew the contract.  

 

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US policy changed to permit opium growing and the heroin trade during Obama’s first year in office, as a way to minimize US troop casualties in Afghanistan. And to maximize US civilian casualties in the US from heroin.

 

The CIA defines blowback as the ‘consequences at home of operations overseas’.

 

Since ending US eradication efforts, US heroin deaths shot up from 3,036 (2010) to 4,397 (2011) to 5,925 (2012) to 8,260 (2013) to 10,574 in 2014. The heroin death toll continues to shoot up as does the number of heroin users, from the 1,500,000 US heroin users in 2010 to 4,500,000 heroin users in 2015. As heroin deaths under Obama tripled, so has heroin usage.

 

There were 7,600 hectares of Afghan opium poppies when the War in Afghanistan began in 2001. (1 hectare = 2.5 US acres.) By 2009, there were 123,000 hectares. In 2014, Afghan poppy fields spread to 224,000 hectares resulting in a bumper crop of 6,400 tons of opium, enough to make 640,000 kilograms of heroin thanks to Obama. Opium yields far greater profit than foods like wheat or corn, so opium production will continue to rise without serious eradication efforts.

 

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2016/04/23/...-epidemic/

 

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http://www.cfr.org/afghanistan/taliban-afghanistan/p10551

 

The Taliban's post-2001 resurgence has partially been financed by narcotics production and trafficking, though Mullah Omar issued injunctions against opium production, and the Taliban eradicated much of the poppy crop during its rule.

 

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Google "troops guarding poppy fields".

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