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Fight or not to fight against opium?

There, at least, is clear ... Taken from here

The U.S. leaves they grow Afghan opium? While the UN Office against Drugs and Crime reported that Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium and hashish, Karim Pakzad, a researcher at IRIS peak "co-responsibility" in Washington and Kabul.

photo archives. (AFP) AFP

Afghanistan first world producer of opium and hashish. The information revealed by the

UN Office against Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Wednesday, March 31 will rise, a priori, or dispute or controversy. However, a statement by a spokesman that Office is surprising. Duck chained

it is echoed this week:

"the great public aura du mal à accepter des images de soldats de l'Otan qui marchent le long des champs d'opium, mais dans ce cas précis il est judicieux de

marquer une pause dans les éradications."

Une politique laxiste

Autrement dit, la misère qui touche le pays et la lutte contre le terrorisme impose, pour un temps, un certain laxisme en la matière. Un avis partagée par l'armée américaine, qui selon le conseiller personnel du

général Stanley McChrystal,
s'interdit d'écraser les champs de pavot de la cité de
Marjah dans le sud de l'Afghanistan. Cité par le New York Times
, ce conseiller justifie la stratégie US :
"On ne piétine pas le gagne-pain d'une population qu'on tente de railler"

. Pleinement assumée, cette politique s'inscrit dans le cadre de l'opération Mushtarak (Ensemble) lancée le 13 février dernier et destinée à éliminer la présence des talibans dans la

province du Helmand (sud du pays). Malgré cela, les talibans, bien que diminués, y sont toujours actifs, mêlés à la population ou cachés dans les montagnes. Preuve en est, un attentat a fait hier au moins 13 morts et une quarantaine de blessés sur un marché de la province.

Une stratégie américaine contradictoire ?

Coincidence or not

events, the victims, mostly farmers, were waiting to receive free seedlings fertilized cons party which they renounced the culture of the opiate. An initiative of the Afghan government and its international allies to fight against drug trafficking. How then to explain the laxity of the U.S. military against poppy growers? Asked by Nouvelobs.com, Karim Pakzad

, associate researcher at the Institute of International Relations and Strategic

(IRIS) explains this "apparent contradiction" by "U.S. strategy in Afghanistan and lack of willingness of the Afghan government to eradicate poppy cultivation and all other drugs'

.

"Co-responsibility" Former professor at Kabul University, Karim Pakzad calls into question the idea that "the Afghan government would fight against poppy cultivation, while the U.S. would not make a priority" . " The reality is quite different, much less Manichean.

There is a shared responsibility

government of Hamid Karzai and the U.S. administration in the persistence of opium cultivation in the country, "he insists. To go even further:

"it is common knowledge that that senior administration officials are involved in the Afghan drug trade. The new Minister of Justice has also affirmed the reality that everyone knows . The plan launched in early March by the Afghan government is more or less than of political communication, responding to pressure from the military coalition, itself influenced by Western public opinion. It is a way as to exclude accusations of corruption that Karzai is the subject. " "Poppy cultivation is not likely to diminish." regard to the liability United States, Karim Pakzad explained first by "strategy" which "during the early years have deliberately chosen to leave them alone drug traffickers. The objective was to

s attack primarily for terrorists and other insurgents

" whereas" once this is resolved, the matter will be resolved almost poppy itself . He also explained by "the many failures accumulated by the army in its attempt to fight against opium cultivation. In 2005, there has been a real attempt to take the problem to round the body by spreading, for example, herbicides on the fields. "" However says he "this attempt was immediately condemned by the Karzai government and farmers who depend on financial resources generated by drug trafficking "

. According to the UN Office against Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the annual income from opium production was

$ 438 million in 2009 to 6,900 tons produced

. Karim Pakzad

concluded: "The strategy U.S. military and Afghan government are complementary. None of them has, in the situation current interest in the fight against drugs as a priority. Ny as it will not be a strong Afghan state, credible and not corrupt and that the U.S. military will not score points against the insurgency poppy cultivation is not likely to diminish. " More or less assumed by the administration Obama, the consensus is increasingly questioned. The latest example, the U.S. Agency for fight against drugs (Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA), which depends on the U.S. Department of Justice, expressed this Thursday ready to backtracking of Afghan traffickers, including to the government. (Benjamin Harroch - Nouvelobs.com)