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Opium, Rape and the American Way
The warlords we champion in Afghanistan are as venal, as opposed to the rights of women and basic democratic freedoms, and as heavily involved in opium trafficking as the Taliban. The moral lines we draw between us and our adversaries are fictional. The uplifting narratives used to justify the war in Afghanistan are pathetic attempts to redeem acts of senseless brutality. War cannot be waged to instill any virtue, including democracy or the liberation of women. War always empowers those who have a penchant for violence and access to weapons. War turns the moral order upside down and abolishes all discussions of human rights. War banishes the just and the decent to the margins of society. And the weapons of war do not separate the innocent and the damned. An aerial drone is our version of an improvised explosive device. An iron fragmentation bomb is our answer to a suicide bomb. A burst from a belt-fed machine gun causes the same terror and bloodshed among civilians no matter who pulls the trigger.
"We need to tear the mask off of the fundamentalist warlords who after the tragedy of 9/11 replaced the Taliban," Malalai Joya, who was expelled from the Afghan parliament two years ago for denouncing government corruption and the Western occupation, told me during her visit to New York last week. "They used the mask of democracy to take power. They continue this deception. These warlords are mentally the same as the Taliban. The only change is physical. These warlords during the civil war in Afghanistan from 1992 to 1996 killed 65,000 innocent people. They have committed human rights violations, like the Taliban, against women and many others."
"In eight years less than 2,000 Talib have been killed and more than 8,000 innocent civilians has been killed," she went on. "We believe that this is not war on terror. This is war on innocent civilians. Look at the massacres carried out by NATO forces in Afghanistan. Look what they did in May in the Farah province, where more than 150 civilians were killed, most of them women and children. They used white phosphorus and cluster bombs. There were 200 civilians on 9th of September killed in the Kunduz province, again most of them women and children. You can see the Web site of professor Marc Herold, this democratic man, to know better the war crimes in Afghanistan imposed on our people. The United States and NATO eight years ago occupied my country under the banner of woman's rights and democracy. But they have only pushed us from the frying pan into the fire. They put into power men who are photocopies of the Taliban."
Afghanistan's boom in the trade in opium, used to produce heroin, over the past eight years of occupation has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to the Taliban, al-Qaida, local warlords, criminal gangs, kidnappers, private armies, drug traffickers and many of the senior figures in the government of Hamid Karzai. The New York Times reported that the brother of President Karzai, Ahmed Wali Karzai, has been collecting money from the CIA although he is a major player in the illegal opium business. Afghanistan produces 92 percent of the world's opium in a trade that is worth some $65 billion, the United Nations estimates. This opium feeds some 15 million addicts worldwide and kills around 100,000 people annually. These fatalities should be added to the rolls of war dead.
Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said that the drug trade has permitted the Taliban to thrive and expand despite the presence of 100,000 NATO troops.
"The Taliban's direct involvement in the opium trade allows them to fund a war machine that is becoming technologically more complex and increasingly widespread," said Costa.
The UNODC estimates the Taliban earned $90 million to $160 million a year from taxing the production and smuggling of opium and heroin between 2005 and 2009, as much as double the amount it earned annually while it was in power nearly a decade ago. And Costa described the Afghan-Pakistani border as "the world's largest free trade zone in anything and everything that is illicit," an area blighted by drugs, weapons and illegal immigration. The "perfect storm of drugs and terrorism" may be on the move along drug trafficking routes through Central Asia, he warned. Profits made from opium are being pumped into militant groups in Central Asia and "a big part of the region could be engulfed in large-scale terrorism, endangering its massive energy resources," Costa said.
"Afghanistan, after eight years of occupation, has become a world center for drugs," Joya told me. "The drug lords are the only ones with power. How can you expect these people to stop the planting of opium and halt the drug trade? How is it that the Taliban when they were in power destroyed the opium production and a superpower not only cannot destroy the opium production but allows it to increase? And while all this goes on, those who support the war talk to you about women's rights. We do not have human rights now in most provinces. It is as easy to kill a woman in my country as it is to kill a bird. In some big cities like Kabul some women have access to jobs and education, but in most of the country the situation for women is hell. Rape, kidnapping and domestic violence are increasing. These fundamentalists during the so-called free elections made a misogynist law against Shia women in Afghanistan. This law has even been signed by Hamid Karzai. All these crimes are happening under the name of democracy."
Thousands of Afghan civilians have died from insurgent and foreign military violence. And American and NATO forces are responsible for almost half the civilian deaths in Afghanistan. Tens of thousands of Afghan civilians have also died from displacement, starvation, disease, exposure, lack of medical treatment, crime and lawlessness resulting from the war.
Joya argues that Karzai and his rival Abdullah Abdullah, who has withdrawn from the Nov. 7 runoff election, will do nothing to halt the transformation of Afghanistan into a narco-state. She said that NATO, by choosing sides in a battle between two corrupt and brutal opponents, has lost all its legitimacy in the country.
The recent resignation of a high-level U.S. diplomat in Afghanistan, Matthew Hoh, was in part tied to the drug problem. Hoh wrote in his resignation letter that Karzi's government is filled with "glaring corruption and unabashed graft." Karzi, he wrote, is a president "whose confidants and chief advisers comprise drug lords and war crimes villains who mock our own rule of law and counter-narcotics effort."
Joya said, "Where do you think the $36 billion of money poured into country by the international community have gone? This money went into the pockets of the drug lords and the warlords. There are 18 million people in Afghanistan who live on less than $2 a day while these warlords get rich. The Taliban and warlords together contribute to this fascism while the occupation forces are bombing and killing innocent civilians. When we do not have security how can we even talk about human rights or women's rights?"
"This election under the shade of Afghan war-lordism, drug-lordism, corruption and occupation forces has no legitimacy at all," she said. "The result will be like the same donkey but with new saddles. It is not important who is voting. It is important who is counting. And this is our problem. Many of those who go with the Taliban do not support the Taliban, but they are fed up with these warlords and this injustice and they go with the Taliban to take revenge. I do not agree with them, but I understand them. Most of my people are against the Taliban and the warlords, which is why millions did not take part in this tragic drama of an election."
"The U.S. wastes taxpayers' money and the blood of their soldiers by supporting such a mafia corrupt system of Hamid Karzai," said Joya, who changes houses in Kabul frequently because of the numerous death threats made against her. "Eight years is long enough to learn about Karzai and Abdullah. They chained my country to the center of drugs. If Obama was really honest he would support the democratic-minded people of my country. We have a lot [of those people]. But he does not support the democratic-minded people of my country. He is going to start war in Pakistan by attacking in the border area of Pakistan. More civilians have been killed in the Obama period than even during the criminal Bush."
"My people are sandwiched between two powerful enemies," she lamented. "The occupation forces from the sky bomb and kill innocent civilians. On the ground, Taliban and these warlords deliver fascism. As NATO kills more civilians the resistance to the foreign troops increases. If the U.S. government and NATO do not leave voluntarily my people will give to them the same lesson they gave to Russia and to the English who three times tried to occupy Afghanistan. It is easier for us to fight against one enemy rather than two."
98 Comments so far
Show Allthe brother of President Karzai, Ahmed Wali Karzai, has been collecting money from the CIA although he is a major player in the illegal opium business...
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As Dave Lindorff correctly pointed out we have a zero tolerance policy for people caught possessing drugs in this country...We ought to have the same policy with the CIA.
When will the criminal investigation of the CIA's involvement in illegal drug trade begin?
Or will we allow this crime to go unpunished too?
We already know the answer.
A lot of the fight to reveal the CIA's involvement in drugs was done by Mike Ruppert at FromTheWilderness and the late Gary Webb, who published "Dark Alliance." Ruppet's first website has archived his documentation of CIA drug involvement here, http://www.copvcia.com/free/ciadrugs/index.html
Re karlof1 November 2nd, 2009 1:20 pm
Good sources, thanks (and rest in peace, Gary Webb). The seminal work on this subject is "The Politics of Heroin," formerly titled "The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia," by Prof. Alfred J. McCoy. It's probably in its 16th or 17th printing by now, and continuously revised and updated.
And why do we have a "zero tolerance policy" in this country? Because it drives the price up.
Let's see here: we were at war in Vietnam when they produced a lot of opium. At 'war' in Columbia, the cocaine capital. And now in Afghanistan...
And the CIA was involved in how many of these?
Things that make you say "Hmmmmm" indeed.
It's well-known that the police forces of large USan cities are as currupt. There simply hasn't been a journalist yet to connect the dots between the culture of those organizations and the CIA.
Considering the 2-3 hour public rape in CA, I certainly do not believe that the last thing Afghanistan wants is that kind of "democracy" being brought to them.
As for opium and the war lords, what's to be surprised about? We have a drug war here in the US where Big Pharma gets to dictate its poison pills while at the same time banning the peaceful plant Cannabis. As I eventually learned and confirmed, legalizing cannabis would open the doors to growing our own fuel without having to go to wars for oil or be tied to nations such Iran and Saudi Arabia where the working class people in both nations are persecuted.
The best way to end the drug war is to remove all legal barriers to all drugs and let people decide what they want to keep and feed their own bodies with.
jenniferbedingfield says:
The best way to end the drug war is to remove all legal barriers to all drugs and let people decide what they want to keep and feed their own bodies with.
Ahhh...stop...listen to the wilderness and breathe deeply the wonderfully fresh air in this oasis of clarity...
before we once again plunge back into the dark jungle of insanity and murder, and quickly, lest this clarity become habit-forming...addicting...
Global Start Date: September 22, 2012...acoustic, agrarian living...personal rights and responsibilities restored in this area and others...personal engagement in one's sustenance and decisions the new requirement...
Chris Hedges is an expert at picking at a wound. Piece by piece he pulls up the scab and looks at the bloody viscera underneath. Fascinating. But, he does not explain why the wound is there, or what can be done about it.
Why the wound is there - it is time to begin to understand the world of international finance and its control of the world's 'democratic' governments. The time for a serious study of conspiracy theories has arrived.
What to do about it - the only active campaign I know about is Cindy Sheehan's plan to stage continuous civil disobedience in Washington DC. I don't think it has the chance of a snowball in hell, but at least it seems directed in the right direction. To fail to mention it is inexplicable.
Thanks to Chris Hedges and Malalai Joya for telling the truth about Afghanistan. Hedges is one of the men who understands what war is about: "War always empowers those who have a penchant for violence and access to weapons. War turns the moral order upside down and abolishes all discussions of human rights. War banishes the just and the decent to the margins of society."
All the USA does is create more warlords everywhere including here at home where the bulk of our money goes to keep this petro, narco, military industrial complex in power ever planning more wars. The US military is planning for "the long war" . There are never enough wars for these domestic warlords. And we must remember that in modern warfare 90% of who die are civilians mainly women and children. And this is called collateral damage. It seems the dreaded apostate Mary Daly was right to say all war is war against women.
We must understand that to the military everyone but the military and their corporate, government sponsors are collateral and they have a calculus for how many collateral deaths are allowed. That means far more civilian deaths are acceptable than military ones. So what democracy could ever come from killing people with no voice in the struggle?
At this point the USA relies on the defense industry to keep its economy afloat. Bloated generals and bankers and defense industry honchos pay thousands of lobbyists to keep their white man welfare going. All our senators and congressmen celebrate the war businesses they bring home while mouthing platitudes about peace. We sell guns to the world, we are number one in selling arms to the world.
This is a filthy evil system growing out of patriarchy and all the more vicious for being married to capitalism and advanced technology. When will we see we need advanced social skills, not more of this military macho death machine? They are one; the US generals, the Afghan warlords, Al Quaeda; the rapists and killers in Africa all these men with their pistolas, Kalashnikoffs,drones and the cops with tasers too. Living in a media hyped frat boy fantasy of ever hardness and power through weapons. And they always kill and rape women. War does not help women that's just another bunch of bs for the civilians to be fed to keep them quiet while the big boys rake in the dough doing what they love.
We the people of the USA must oust our warlords who are so much of the problem worldwide. We the women of the world are beginning to collectively understand that there is no more protection for our countries in war than there is protection for individual women in marriage where battering occurs so frequently. The defense/war industry is a protection racket just like the Mafia. We need to turn to ourselves and our communities and create a broader international community for genuine security.
Thanks to Chris Hedges and Malalai Joya for telling the truth about Afghanistan. Hedges is one of the men who understands what war is about: "War always empowers those who have a penchant for violence and access to weapons. War turns the moral order upside down and abolishes all discussions of human rights. War banishes the just and the decent to the margins of society."
All the USA does is create more warlords everywhere including here at home where the bulk of our money goes to keep this petro, narco, military industrial complex in power ever planning more wars. The US military is planning for "the long war" . There are never enough wars for these domestic warlords. And we must remember that in modern warfare 90% of who die are civilians mainly women and children. And this is called collateral damage. It seems the dreaded apostate Mary Daly was right to say all war is war against women.
We must understand that to the military everyone but the military and their corporate, government sponsors are collateral and they have a calculus for how many collateral deaths are allowed. That means far more civilian deaths are acceptable than military ones. So what democracy could ever come from killing people with no voice in the struggle?
At this point the USA relies on the defense industry to keep its economy afloat. Bloated generals and bankers and defense industry honchos pay thousands of lobbyists to keep their white man welfare going. All our senators and congressmen celebrate the war businesses they bring home while mouthing platitudes about peace. We sell guns to the world, we are number one in selling arms to the world.
This is a filthy evil system growing out of patriarchy and all the more vicious for being married to capitalism and advanced technology. When will we see we need advanced social skills, not more of this military macho death machine? They are one; the US generals, the Afghan warlords, Al Quaeda; the rapists and killers in Africa all these men with their pistolas, Kalashnikoffs,drones and the cops with tasers too. Living in a media hyped frat boy fantasy of ever hardness and power through weapons. And they always kill and rape women. War does not help women that's just another bunch of bs for the civilians to be fed to keep them quiet while the big boys rake in the dough doing what they love.
We the people of the USA must oust our warlords who are so much of the problem worldwide. We the women of the world are beginning to collectively understand that there is no more protection for our countries in war than there is protection for individual women in marriage where battering occurs so frequently. The defense/war industry is a protection racket just like the Mafia. We need to turn to ourselves and our communities and create a broader international community for genuine security.
Sioux Rose
ARTEMIX: Profound and most-excellent post. I have nothing to add apart from a thank you. I wish more people "got it."
I looked up the three women you told me the other day about. I respect what they did for feminism although I think they pushed too far at some point. Don't get me wrong. I don't hate women but I support moderated feminism and am strictly for equal gender rights. I am not comfortable with aggressive feminism which I initially perceived from your earlier post until I saw your reply to jake on astrology.
"in modern warfare 90% of who die are civilians mainly women and children."
That number sounds way off. Men have been dying too but they aren't reported. If 90% of those who die are women and children, then why do I hear about more widows than widowers. From which source did you find such a percentage?
Here's one source Recovery from armed conflict in developing countries - Google Books
by Geoff T. Harris - 1999 - Political Science - 340 pages
and then there are reports form US reporter like a US soldier who said"he shot "the chick" because she was standing too close to an Iraqi soldier he was targeting."
I think part of why war goes on and on is that too many men are invested in seeing it as a noble adventure by the good guys. Of course the good guys are always whoever is speaking to justify why he wars. War won't end until we understand how it is tied so to the construction of masculinity. This is why working class men bought the Bush propaganda though the Bush/Cheney regime was profoundly against their class interests. Above all they don't want to be wimps and that is always defined by a refusal to fight physically not about moral courage.
I saw a chapter from that book dedicated to women and children. I was able to read some of the pages for free so maybe the 90% number you mentioned is in one of those blocked pages. It is oddly high though given the lack of reporting on men but if it actually says so and explains where that number is coming from, I am prepared to accept that.
I don't know why men who are murdered are not given a page to have their deaths reported compared to women. It might have to do with some unknown fear that reporting male deaths would stir up the oppressive groups or that the media and its audience find it emotional and sexy to report female deaths as very valuable compared to male deaths. Either way, such dishonest and biased reporting is wrong.
I won't deny that working class men voted against their own economic interests and the same can be said of working class women. I voted for Nader while most of them voted D or R. Your framing of good guys is different from what I perceive as good guys. The good guys to me are the ones who don't want anything to do with war while the macho guys are the ones pushing it. I understand where everyone is coming from when they say "Men are from Mars and women are from Venus". That might have been true in the past but I have witnessed mixups and reversals. To say that good guys want war is to overlook what their women are really thinking. When I was in high school and college, I had to put up with macho minded women and for those who weren't macho, I was a loser to them because I was a peace advocate while their boyfriends sounded tough and some of them were preparing to go to war. I did date a couple of women. On my first date, one of them asked that I sign up and look like a hero and then we broke up. On second date, one week before we were to get married, I had to call the wedding off when she told me that she was interested in the "stud" and thought that marrying a peace man meant having a boring life. I gave up and stuck to being a proud bachelor. That wasn't the end of it. In the later years, I talked to some of my high school and college mates who were serving and some of them confirmed that their wives were pressuring them into staying and fighting even when some of the guys wanted out. Half of these army wives would come out bragging and exaggerating about their man serving and some would knowingly embarrass me in public calling a "peace loser". Some of them have called themselves feminists even when they're macho women. You're right. These guys don't want to be wimps but it's not just other guys who are putting peer pressure on them but their own women are also doing their part to pressure them into staying and fighting as well. I believe in moderated masculinity and moderated feminism. Either one is dangerous if taken too far I fear.
You need to move to a major city and meet some hippies man. Environmental activists are very peaceful too.
I suppose Denver would look ok compared to Colorado Springs. I'm already called a hippie according to the looney rightwingers where I live at.
Oh God, Colorado Springs? No wonder...military town + evangelical Christian base = psychotic people.
Yep, that's true. The increase in immigrants has reduced some of the psycho but I've gotten used to turning the other cheek. I'm used to living in CO Springs but could move any day except for my house being 90k below value thanks to the housing crash.
"Afghanistan's boom in the trade in opium, used to produce heroin, over the past eight years of occupation has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars to the Taliban, al-Qaida, local warlords, criminal gangs, kidnappers, private armies, drug traffickers and many of the senior figures in the government of Hamid Karzai."
. . . which, of course, also means right into the hands of the CIA.
Re Seventhson November 2nd, 2009 11:33 am
To mention the drug trade and the CIA in the same sentence is to approach the truth. To include the world's great banks, who facilitate the trade and take their silent cut, and the politicians, who will not even discuss legalization, is to land squarely on it.
The gangster-politician-CEO axis of evil will use any weapon, from a suppressed Hi-Standard .22 semiauto pistol to F-18s to ersatz "democratic elections," to maintain their global hegemony.
Ah yes, I did neglect to mention the huge banks.
In fact, wasn't that what the BCCI scandal in the 90s was all about? Banking, drug money, the CIA, and terrorism all rolled into one neat package?
bligh4
Just goes to show you there is no "good side" in Afghanistan.
Pull out and let them fight it out among themselves.
Civilian deaths won't cease though. Over 2/3's of the civilian deaths so far has been caused by the warlords and taliban.
Not our problem though.
"Not our problem though."
Yeah WE'RE the good guys. We just invaded and occupied this country because WE'RE good people. WE'RE just spreading some good old fashioned Democracy and THEIR Civil War is screwing up our plans.
bligh4
So you think we should stay?
The country was screwed up long before we got there. Let the Afghans solve their own problems.
The country was far, far less screwed up "before we got there" if we means influential Americans.
To examine this, we have to go back before Jimmy Carter lured the Soviets there. Afghanistan has been our baby since, albeit alternately beaten and dumpstered.
All the more reason to vamoose, though.
Skull & Bones
Sophie Scholl-The Final Days
While Malalai Joya is essentially correct regarding the futility of foreign forces fighting the Taliban and propping up corrupt warlords, this question remains: once the foreigners leave, who exactly will take up arms against the warlords and the Taliban?
Locals might sooner ask "If the Taliban leaves or disarms, who exactly will take up arms against the Americans?".
American forces kill more than anyone in the area. They destroy far, far more. What they build, they build for themselves. Of all groups, they have the least vested interest in local residents or a liveable Afghanistan.
Most who fight the Americans are not Talib, but given the American threat, working with the Taliban becomes a reasonable compromise for many in many circumstances.
The notion that American atrocities are somehow better than those of despots - of other despots - dies hard, even among those who disapprove of both.
The argument seems to go that American elections, worth something even as they are, make American despotism abroad democratic, or more democratic, or less antidemocratic, or somehow in the service of democracy, or something like that. Accordingly, people argue over the non-election of Hamid Karzai as though were he elected, America would have in some sense brought democracy to Afghanistan.
Insofar as Afghanistan is governed by any central government, it is governed from Washington, not Kabul. As long as American soldiers dominate Afghanistan, nothing short of allowing the residents of Afghanistan to run candidates, vote in American elections, and generally conduct themselves as part of the American polis would approach even marginal democracy.
It's that "taxation without representation" thing again.
Another question might be, "With Americans running all over Kabul, how can we afford to do anything with the Taliban?'
Your fairly long reply still leaves the original question unaddressed. And the piece completely failed to addressed the question of the Pashtun-centric nature of the Taliban. Anyone who knows remotely anything about Afghan history knows that the other peoples of the country: Tadjiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, & Kirgiz, did not do well under Taliban mark 1, nor are likely to do well under Taliban mark 2.
Thus to move this along further; as anyone whom had read my prior posts regarding this subject knows, I favor the West getting out of Afghanistan as quickly as possible, but leaving their weapons and equipment in the hands of the non-Pashtun peoples whom suffered at under the prior Taliban regime. If the Pashtuns desire to be ruled by religious zealots whose "ideas" make the Wahhabis look modern, so be it. Letting the Taliban impose their virtually genocidal rule over non-Pashtuns is a truly bad idea on many levels.
A fairly short version is this: When the US leaves, the people of Afghanistan will be better able to deal with these problems.
Sure they're problems.
Perhaps I'm mistaking you: I had taken you to mean that the internal problems of the region might in some way constitute a reason for American depredation or a reason to condone it.
The only way that this whole mess is ever going to stop is when we, the people re-organize the whole mess.
Who cares about your view, we live in gringolandia, you said you did not. Why should WE give a toss? We are separated by Westphalian borders that were created by elite European whites. So, the evil white devil slave masters have brought about the nation-state system that separates us.
We're exporting the American way of life, you know, democracy and free enterprise and truth and justice, to these savages. It will surely win their hearts and minds.
When you export something as noble as liberty, well, nothing can be perfect. Little stuff like building the world's biggest drug cartel, like 2 million Afghan heroin/opium addicts. They'll get over these issues in a while.
You know what? President Obama is going to get hosed, and I'm not talking about Sheriff Bull Connor's firehoses in Alabama in the 1960s.
Very few Afghans use opium or its derivatives (heroin). While much of the drug trade is with Europe, there is a growing trade with China. As with Vietnam, drug use in the US military is exploding.
The Taliban "discourages" use among the Afghans - hashish is the drug of choice
The Taliban does encourage poppy cultivation to fund their operations. They have built up a substantial war chest and are currently discouraging growth to keep the world prices high.
The CIA may be the major supporters of the drug trade. The Afghan drug trade is little different than Vietnam and Columbia - a well organized business to fund a wide range of CIA buisnesses and operations.
One of the reasons why the US switched from heroin in the seventies to cocaine in the eighties was the shutdown of western operations in Afghanistan - during the Soviet occupation - although there was a substantial growth in heroin use in the Soviet military and among soviet civilians.
Maybe our friend should step outside of the US to see how much democracy, free enterprise, truth and jsutice really exists in Amerika.
Anyone who believes that we enjoy these liberties must be smoking crack
I really did hear the 2 million heroin/opium addicts number for Afghanistan. The local drug warlords are not above extracting great wealth from their own locals by giving out free tastes of the stuff. The BBC went on to show an Afghan woman addicted to the stuff.
I really thought I was laying the sarcasm on thick with a trowel. I guess not quite thick enough. Oh well...
Who are the real "savages?" Who rape, plunder, ruin economies and run countries amuck (including their own)? OMG, its Amerika!
You're absolutely right. Mexico is the perfect example of that. Look at how well the American way has worked there.
A rather different point-of-view and analysis of Karzai's victory that is quite stimulating can be found here, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KK03Df04.html and should be read against an "American freelance journalist" POV published by the same source, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/KK03Df06.html
Here's the kicker: Does anyone know who invented heroin?
Bayer. Yes, the aspirin people.
From wikipedia - "From 1898 through to 1910 diacetylmorphine was marketed under the name heroin as a non-addictive morphine substitute and cough suppressant. Bayer marketed heroin as a cure for morphine addiction before it was discovered that it rapidly metabolizes into morphine. As such, heroin is essentially a quicker acting form of morphine. The company was embarrassed by the new finding, which became a historic blunder for Bayer."
Don't tell that to Fox News watchers; they might stop taking aspirin.
Did you mean to say 'double up on their dosis' instead?
Chris Hedges is usually my cup of tea but his article on Afghans is biased on talking about only the female victims of war and opium boom. Men have been dying in Afghanistan for years/decades and rarely gets a page in the news but when a woman dies there it’s front page news because women are worth more than men. Most men do just as much hard work and try to look their best. Did you know that in Afghanistan men who shave risk losing their lives? Men who try to save and assist Afghan women are always at greater risks of losing their lives and their losses go unreported let alone analyzed. Credit should be given to good brothers and fathers risking their lives to save women and children. War lords damages both men and women equally.
It is tough to separate the good from the bad guys when it comes to Afghanistan. I once came across a very well educated woman whose husband is Afghan and she knows a lot about Afghan foreign policy. She shared a lot of information about the equality that used to exist between both men and women in Afghanistan up to the 1970s. She would agree with you that both men and women have been equally suffering even for those who have been surviving these last 3 decades in poverty. I don't know if she is here but I can look up the archives and pull up that useful information if you wish.
Military culture, a culture that saturates the entire US society, projects this notion that mens lives, especially the lives of the men in the countries we are at war with, mean nothing, whether they are soldier or civilian. Their only purpose, this militaristic culture dictates, is death; which is the overarching philosophy that seeps through our media, whether it is video games, movies or TV shows.
But we see this devaluation here as well as the military promotes this "be a real man, die for your country" mentality. These guys get this idea in their heads that through duty they can achieve honor, and that 'bravery' is following orders and doing things they'd otherwise would never do.
On one level, all these guys are being tricked into giving up their lives for some arbitrary higher purpose, they are seduced into believing that the only way to be a 'real' man is to enlist, suffer, be brave, be strong, and perhaps one day they will be seen as heroes. Typical masculine qualities are preyed upon by the military propaganda machine, to get a whole bunch of men to believe they are sacrifices, ultimately for a cause that has nothing to do with them, their families, or even their country.
The military is ultimately a trap set up by viscious, wealthy men high up on the political and economic hierarchy who view "lower" men as disposable, worthless beings who's only purpose is to gain for those at the top more wealth of some variety. These wealthy men then put these 'lower' men in fierce situations, not really caring too much for their well-being, knowing that if twenty or thirty die, there are hundreds waiting in line to take their place, just so some resource can be salvaged for the benefit of some corporation. These orchastraters of war could care less how horribly their "war planning" is, they don't really care if 300, or 600,000 die, or how long the war lasts, or for that matter, how long the men they have fighting in it must endure it, whether its 12 months or four years, as long as the archatects of war get their prize in the end.
A man's life is just as valuable as a womans life, the militaristic culture that permeates US society should be denounced. The value of life needs to be restored in our culture, as much for men as for women. Our militaristic culture promotes a completely backwards approach to life that encourages aggression and stifles compassion - which moves our society nowhere. We are in for a mess as long as we let this continue, this isn't even a call for peace as much as it is a call for a significant cultural reality check. Our collective mindsets in this country, instilled in us by those viscious, wealthy men way up in the political/economic hierarchy will ultimately get the better of us and destroy us if we aren't careful.
There are more women enlisting as well and I have encountered women in high school, college, and beyond who display typical macho qualities or expect their men to do so. Feminism, if pushed too far, can be just as dangerous as masculinity that is pushed too far. Masculinity is not the same as macho. Taken from the dictionary, masculinity is about boldness and strength but that does not mean bullying or controlling someone. Macho is the word for bullying and controlling others, male or female. People need to properly distinguish between masculine and macho if progressives are to win just like a clear distinction needs to be made between original feminism and militaristic feminism that is infecting more women these days.
Great analysis otherwise.
In "Little Miss Sunshine" the boy tells his grandfather, "... but you use heroin". His grandpa answers "...at your age you'd be crazy to use it... but at my age you'd be crazy not to".
This is not an endorsement of recreational opiates.
"They used the mask of democracy to take power. They continue this deception. These warlords are mentally the same as the Taliban. "
Yeah, but they are the USA's warlords....the Taliban has that pesky religion, and didn't toe the line when THEY worked for the USA.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
sierra7
For a seminal view of the role of the CIA and drugs in this decrepit world, start with:
"The Politics of Heroin" by, Alfred McCoy...first printing in the 1970's. He has updated his book in the last decade.
You will begin to understand the connection between funding the "black budget" and the CIA's role...along with those in our government who facilitate this dastardly process.
Get out of Afghanistan/Iraq now.
We are now terrorizing Western Pakistan and fulfill the classic American defined role of "terrorists."
It matters not who is "elected" president either here in the USA or in Afghanistan; the rot is deep and very, very evil!
Tom Edgar.
War IS Terrorism. If you don't agree then to war you've never been.
Who has the largest killing organisations,i.e military?U S A.
Who has the largest occupancy in foreign countries?....U S A.
Who makes the largest profits from foreign wars?.......U S A.
Which country has the most W M D's.....................U S A.
Which "Western"country is most fundamentally religious?U S A.
Which "Western"country has the lowest education level..U S A.
Which "Western"country is the most HYPOCRITICAL?????????????.
Now I ask. How can it be Americans think their country is a LEADER when clearly they lead in areas that they themselves deplore in others?