re: #424 sattv4u2

They weren’t in power at the time of the report, hence the “the Taliban and other anti-government forces ” sentence

ALSO

He also pointed to the danger of opium stocks held by the Taliban. “For a number of years, Afghan opium production has exceeded world demand. The bottom should have fallen out of the opium market, but it hasn’t. So where is the missing opium?” said Mr. Costa. “Lack of price response in the opium market can only be the result of stock build-ups, and all evidence points to the Taliban”.

So they were stockpiling it for later sale, meaning they didn’t need as much active production at that time

No, and that’s a specific flaw repeating. The Taliban is not involved in storage and sales. There are some people who claim to be Taliban who are involved in the trade. The Taliban takes a cut (I called it taxes for simplicity, not accuracy).

Let me give some somewhat comparable examples. Not all Sicilian Catholics were Mafia. Not all Republicans are Tea Partiers or members of the KKK.

Hitting the opium production trade hurt the Taliban, but the hurt was incidental as the Taliban proper also disliked the trade.