"Война с наркотиками": ищем под фонарем

First they said it was a war against al-Qaeda. Then, when they failed to find Osama bin Laden and his henchmen, they said it was a war to topple the Taliban and liberate women from the burqa. Now, as Western troops continue to dig themselves into Afghanistan more than five years after 9/11, they're calling it a "war on drugs." One of the key justifications for the continuing presence of American, British, Australian, Spanish, Italian, and other forces in Afghanistan is to stem the growth of poppy fields, which reportedly provide the raw materials for 90 percent of the world's heroin. According to Condoleezza Rice, if this "drug economy" is left unchallenged Afghanistan might well become a "failed state" and threaten stability around the world with its ceaseless export of narcotics.

Nothing better sums up the folly of Western intervention in Afghanistan than this latest metamorphosis into a "war on drugs." In targeting Afghanistan's poppy cultivation, America and Britain in particular are effectively externalizing their own social problems on to faraway fields. They are attempting to tackle the disillusionment and decadence within their own societies – which is what gives rise in the first place to a steady demand in the West for escapist and trip-inducing narcotics – by eradicating Afghan farms and severely punishing Afghan farmers who are merely responding to that Western demand. Not for the first time in recent years, Western powers are using brute military force overseas in an attempt to resolve a deep social and political malaise at home.

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/oneill.php?articleid=9722


(Выделено мной - Ю.К.)