NL-Outsidethebox [confederation]

Photo by Ash Sweeting

Afghan officials also warned yesterday that the country was facing an imminent food crisis after a disastrous crop failure this spring. The effect has been compounded by the disruption caused by heavy fighting across the south.

"There is a deficit of 1.2 million tonnes this year regarding the cereal crop," an agriculture ministry official said yesterday, warning that 2.4 million Afghans face hunger this year.

The links between the growing strength of the insurgency and the economic malaise in the south are widely studied in Kabul. Well-funded Taleban insurgents pay wages of $400 a month and impoverished villagers interviewed by The Scotsman near Kandahar last month complained that the only sources of economic potential in the south were fighting for the Taleban and growing opium.

"It is very serious ... they can make use of it," one Afghan official said of the potential benefit for the Taleban from a food crisis.

http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=444&id=1035902006

Nato set to expand Afghan support.
http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=444&id=1046962006

NATO allies have made last-minute offers of more aircraft to ensure the alliance can take over military operations in southern Afghanistan by the end of the month as planned, it was announced yesterday.

The United States' general James Jones, NATO's top commander of operations, had threatened to delay the expansion south if a shortage of helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft and other equipment was not overcome.

I fail to see the problem of sources of income for Afghan. Apparently according to a senil report there is a world wide shortage of Opium for pain killing drugs morphine or codeine for Aids, Cancer and chronic pain. Afghan has an abundance of Opium but it is being used by the Taliban, insurgants and organized crime to fund their own self interest in the area while our troops and the people of Afghan are being put into harms way because of their socio economic circumstances. They are just trying to survive the best way they know how. It is up to us and the world if they truely want to curb terrorism and organized crime to provide a ways and means other than Illegal opium production or wages from these illegal operations.
Didn't we learn anything from prohibition?

In 2002, 77% of the world’s morphine was consumed by seven rich countries: USA, the
UK, Italy, Australia, France, Spain and Japan. Yet according to official figures even in
these countries, only 24 per cent of moderate to severe pain relief need was being met.

Companies/Countries currently involved in opium-based production and processing in the world
include:
America
Mallinckrodt (Tyco Healthcare)
Noramco (Johnson& Johnson)
Abbott Laboratories
Sanofi Pharmaceuticals and Bristol-Myers Squibb partnership: Purdue Pharma
Australia
GlaxoSmithKline
Johnson&Johnson
Mayne
France
Sanofi Synthelabo (Sanofi Aventis)
Japan
Shionogi Pharmaceutical
UK
SmithKlineBeecham (GlaxoSmithKline)

http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=444&id=1035902006

BRITISH forces captured the town of Sangin in northern Helmand province this weekend, lifting a two week long siege of the small British base there.

The operation was supported by Canadian and US forces, and was the largest combined operation between the three nations since the Korean war. It came as officials warned that Afghanistan is now facing a food crisis that could help fuel the Taleban insurgency.
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British troops had been cut off even from air support for days at a time. British military sources told The Scotsman that British troops said the place was "a hellhole" under almost continuous attack.

Captain Drew Gibson, a British military spokesman, said British forces had faced a "ridiculous number of contacts" with the Taleban. "We have had one or two firefights on quiet days and five or six on bad days," he said. The rebels attacked with mortars, rocket propelled grenades, heavy machine-gun fire and small arms.

Two British soldiers were killed during an attack on the base on the evening of Saturday, 1 July, as England were playing football against Portugal. One of those killed was Corporal Jabron Hashmi, the first British Muslim soldier to die in the war on terrorism.