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July 24, 2009

Here to Help
Posted by The Editors

This post is by Gen. Paul Eaton (Ret.), Senior Adviser at the National Security Network

There is a standing joke in the Army regarding our very important office of the Inspector General, the office that assures for the commander the good order and discipline of the unit.

When the IG arrives he states, “We’re here to help.”  And the subordinate commander replies, “We’re glad to see you.”  There is truth and fiction in both statements.

The American Army arrived in Afghanistan shortly after 9/11 to clear Al-Queda and the training base responsible for the attacks on the United States.  The mission has morphed to include an offensive against the Al-Queda supporters in Afghanistan, including some war lords and certainly the Taliban.  We now find ourselves in full counter-narcotics operations in support of the mission of country building.  Counter narcotics operations consisting of burning famer’s crops in an agrarian country are not seen as ‘help’ by the farmers who lose their livelihood and their ability to feed their families, and the general economic viability of the community in which they live.  It isn’t the moral or national issue to them, as it is to us.  It’s business – a bad business that funds a Mafioso inspired network of Taliban, Al-Queda and other bad actors who feed upon the opiate supply line from crop to product en route to Europe.

Alternatives that have worked elsewhere include paying farmers not to grow drug producing crops, incentivizing those farmers to grow the crops that could make Afghanistan the breadbasket of the region it was decades ago and, finally, turning what is now an illegal crop into a legal source for the opiates the world legally produces for rational medical needs.

Thom Shanker’s article today in the New York Times indicates we may have finally turned the corner from actively alienating the base population of Afghanistan to helping the Afghan farmer to help himself, his family and his community.  That this effort would coincide with the arrival of General McChrystal and Ambassador (LTG(R)) Eikenberry reflects the needed shift in addressing the complex fight in Afghanistan with a nuanced menu of offensive capacity and country building at the grass – or poppy – roots level.

The United States Army and Marine Corps and our coalition comrades are really there to help.  We want the Afghan famers to be really glad to see us. And we have to be better and smarter businessmen than the Taliban.

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Alternatives that have worked elsewhere include paying farmers not to grow drug producing crops, incentivizing those farmers to grow the crops that could make Afghanistan the breadbasket of the region it was decades ago and, finally, turning what is now an illegal crop into a legal source for the opiates the world legally produces for rational medical needs.
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