It's Obama's version of the surge. Twenty-thousand Army and Marines pulled out of Iraq and sent straight to the poppy fields of Helmand, Kandahar and Zabul Provinces this summer. US Commanders estimate months of heavy fighting. They have no doubt the Taliban will vigorously defend what makes up the economic engine for the insurgency.
Lots of people around the world will be rooting for the Taliban: the usual suspects, North Koreans, Iranians, Palestinians, Cubans, Venezuelans, Islamic Fundies.
Expect one other group to pile on as well. Guess who? That's right, American drug users. God forbid their supply be cut off. That would be a disaster. According to the UN World Drug Report 2008:
When taken together, opiate use in North, Central and South America
and the Caribbean, is estimated to affect 2.2 million persons. This is
equivalent to 13% of all opiate users in the world in 2006. The largest
opiate market in this region is the USA with approximately 1.2 million
heroin users.
Makes you feel all warm inside, doesn't it, knowing we got 1,200,000 Jane Fondas running around pulling for the other side? Oh well! I guess that's democracy in action.
