Drugs and Terrorism

Have you ever wondered how the Taliban and Al Qaeda fund their operations? Well, here's one method. Through drug traffickers feeding the heroin habits of Americans and Europeans.

A recent report from the UN provides details of the dramatic increase in poppy production (used to make heroin) in Afghanistan. The report describes how the Taliban and Al Qaeda directly profit from the drug trade through distribution to wholesalers and indirectly by shaking down the Afghan farmers for protection money.

For more detailed information on the UN report visit: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14637693/

The gut reaction to this problem might be to destroy the farms with some type of military action such as napalm attacks. But that would be wrong. Firstly, it is not possible to permanently destroy the farms and secondly and probably more importantly, it would badly alienate the poor farmers who would likely become quite attracted to Al Qaeda and the Taliban for fighting against those that destroyed their livelihoods. The benefit of temporarily wiping out farms would not be outweighed by the risk of creating more enemies.

The answer to this problem rests in the homeland. Drug traffickers must be treated aggressively and in concert with the overall war. If the money trail of an American drug trafficker is suspected to lead back to Al Qaeda or the Taliban, that trafficker should be tried for treason for cooperating with the enemy and sent to Guantanamo. Americans should not tolerate their own citizens aiding and abetting the enemy.

As inner-city, drug trafficking, hardened criminals are sent off to Guantanamo for a potential life sentence for treason, the activities of the rest of them would curtail, thus reducing the cycle of dollars flowing from American heroin users to American drug traffickers through several layers of launderers to Al Qaeda, who then use those funds to kill Americans and Europeans.