re: #9 EiMitch

And how are poor people forced to depend on warlords and their drugs supposed to do that?

We could’ve, and we should’ve, given those farmers some other crop to make ends meet. Such as wheat or some other food that’s typically in demand. And help build the infrastructure to make it economically viable. That would’ve gone a long way to stabilize the country.

Not to mention, we didn’t have to go into Iraq in the first place.

We’ve tried that, we’ve been sending agriculture teams into Afghanistan for a decade. But the farmers in the south of that country get more money growing opium poppies than they do growing wheat.

It’s not the we’re indifferent, its that drug cartels are very hard to get rid of and the money from drugs has a powerful appeal.