when the fields are lush again in spring, will farmers be growing opium poppy or wheat?
“This year we want to reach a minimum reduction of at least 50%,” said Gulab Mangal, Governor of Helmand, Afghanistan’s main opium-growing province and the most violent front in the Afghan war. “There is a very strong link between opium growing and the Taliban — the drug dealers are helping Taliban by buying weapons and ammunition for them.” Once known as the bread basket of Afghanistan, the lush green irrigated fields of Helmand are the world’s single largest source of opium. The United States sent 10,000 Marines to the province this year, joining a similar-sized British force. They simultaneously launched the two biggest military offensives of the eight-year-old war, aiming to drive out Taliban fighters from the opium lands. Meanwhile, the Westerners and the Afghan government are trying to persuade farmers to switch to other crops. “They send us help and their sons to sacrifice their lives and we send them opium. We should be grateful and use their resources better,” said Mangal of t
