Bloodless Coup

Karzai Not Aggressive Enough on Poppy Eradication

It seems appropriate that someone named "gall" is in the by-line on this story. US officials don't think Hamid Karzai (the guy we put in power after the Russians and Iranians signed off on him) isn't doing enough to eradicate poppy production in Afghanistan. Can you imagine any Afghan leader who would be more likely to work with the US? I can't. Given the current economy situation in his country, this is sort of like asking the Emir of Kuwait to end petroleum production. But beyond that, we've simply been slow in helping to develop economic alternatives that would make it less of a jolt to the Afghan economy to cut down on this. Until we do that (and perhaps give them all that development money we promised them back when fighting there was the #1 news story in the US) and become more successful at making Afghanistan the kind of secure place that will be conducive to greater economic growth, that the Afghans are unwilling to be more aggressive on this issue isn't remotely surprising.