Related to the Iraq War.
NBC news, Sunday, April 27.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24329380/
[Excerpt]
Lt. Col. Ricky Brown, the commander of the logistics battalion, gave a pep talk to a supply convoy last week, hinting at operations to come.
"You all are gonna move down there so the BLT (battalion landing team) can go in there and kick some Taliban butt," he said.
They have also been given directions to steer clear of the region's poppy fields so they don't risk alienating local farmers who rely on the cash crop for their income.
[Also 2 videos]
Afghan opium cultivation 'growing worse
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/20480740#20480740
Opium industry fuels Taliban comeback
http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&brand=msnbc&vid=b821c1d4-02bb-442c-abf9-1175ce401107
[My comments]
go in there and kick some Taliban butt"
but don't trample on the poppy seed plants
"Afghan opium cultivation 'growing worse."
"Opium industry fuels Taliban comeback"
6 years and 7 months since the attack on Afghanistan and this is where we are at--kick Taliban butt but don't disturb the poppy seed plants because the Taliban need that for their comeback. 6 years and 7 months since the attack for the purpose of eradicating terrorism, and helping to establish democracy in Afghanistan, and the main industry there is still planting and harvesting poppy for the production of opium.
The news article states that the reason for not trampling down the poppy plants is because it would infuriate the poppy farmers and incite them to join the Taliban. Golly! The farmers join the Taliban because there is no opium but the Taliban need the opium to operate. That puts the farmers "between a rock and a hard place" but at the same time it extricates the US from its "between a rock and a hard place," kick butt but don't trample on the poppy plants. Seems logical unless our government is concealing a part of the equation from us.
Establishing democracy in Afghanistan will never happen with opium production being the countries main industry and it should not have taken 6 years and 7 months,
and counting, to come to grips with that.
As James Madison, 4th President of the United States, foretold for future America, "...we must rely upon the wisdom of the best elements in the country to readjust the laws of the nation to the changed conditions." Presently that is absent from the scene, there is a "no show" in the administration, a "no show" among the candidates campaigning for the presidency and a no foreseeable show in the coming new administration. If the "best elements" are absent from the leadership, that leaves only the people to step up in place of the leadership absentee "best elements".
Donald J Donaker
Coordinator
Real Union Of Social Science
(just Google it)