Since August was the deadliest month so far of the Afghani 'war,' the sixty-six U.S. soldiers killed, mostly from an alleged Taliban attack on a Chinook helicopter that killed 30 Navy SEALs, will likely suffice for reason enough that we put a halt to the current policy of withdrawing troops from this obviously Taliban overrun country.
Sixty six killed. Wonder how that compares with Anzio?
Well, no matter in any case. NATO is there to stay. Now, there will be a full accounting of just how many US troops remain as part of this NATO effort, and what other resources are being directed toward the protection of Afghanistan. But those numbers will not be made available until well into the 2020's, when the complexion has changed, with memories faded.
But now, it seems, we are already being pro-active in this regard. The game is on.
This week it was announced that US Training Center Inc, a subsidiary of Blackwater International, has just been awarded a defense contract by the Pentagon for “counter-narcoterrorism" activities in Afghanistan.
Remember those guys? They are the clever folks who changed their corporate name to XE.
Far too many reasons have been suggested as to why the occupation of Afghanistan is important to the west, from its geo-political importance to its myriad mineral wealth, but one of the most compelling is the fact that the country now produces as much as ninety two percent of the world's opium.
The Afghan poppy crop brings in about one billion for the opium farmers themselves, or about $5000 per family annually. Three billion go to Afghan government officials, insurgents, warlords and traffickers. The street value of the drugs produced from the opium, however, is estimated to be as much as two hundred billion a year. One wonders where the money goes to be sufficiently laundered and distributed.
Maybe the local banks can handle that much cash.
Historical reporting reveal in Afghanistan that the opium crop was almost entirely eliminated by the Taliban during the year that they banned opium cultivation, with the chart spiking to record highs during the years of NATO occupation. Take comfort that those charts will keep spiking, with our boys from XE protecting the crops.
Bless those boys.
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