Afghanistan hasn’t fully been liberated from evil perils of the Taliban and al-Qaeda or Islamic terrorism even after six years of continuous war since it began in 2001, yet another problem in the form of illegal drugs (opium) production and trade with a wide mouth open (aggravating the agony) stands in front of Afghan government and its so-called Western supporters.
In fact, both vice trades (terrorism and drugs business) are interconnected with each other, as the black money earned by the black (opium) trade has often been used to carry out operations in the region, against NATO forces, as well as spread terrorism worldwide.
It is a rapid growth of this country’s bitter opium trade, which has helped revive the Taliban while rotting the credibility of the Afghan government.
In the past few years, Opium production has crossed all the limits and towering bigger and bigger with each year in Afghanistan, a nation already burning in the fire of terrorism and militancy.
Over 90% of illegal opium, which is used to make heroin across the world, is produced in Afghanistan, confirms to the World Drug Report. Therefore, the problem of drugs has stepped out of the borders of Afghanistan and become a major concern around the world. Thomas Pietschmann, the report’s author in his eye-opening account, revealed,
The province of Helmand (in Afghanistan) itself is around 70,000 hectares under cultivation, which is three times the total area under cultivation in Myanmar (Burma). So only one province, three times as important as the whole of Myanmar, the second-largest opium-producing country.
Most of the Americans and Afghans are increasingly asking what went wrong in Afghanistan even after the nation was long freed from the tyranny of the Taliban and Al Qaeda. To that, answer is straightforward that failing to disrupt the drug trade was a critical strategic mistake that supported the Islamic militants for such a long period.
Therefore, insurgency could fully not be eliminated from Afghanistan until the opium production or drug trade, which directly supports militancy, shouldn’t be eradicated from the nation.
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