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Taliban's Massively Successful Opium Eradication Raises Questions About What US Was Doing All Along (www.mintpressnews.com)
submitted 3 years ago by to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml
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[–] 18 points 3 years ago (3 children)

You got a source on that? Last I checked Opium is an excellent cash crop that the Taliban used to fund their guerilla war with the US. Now that the Americans are out there is no point to keep growing it.

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  • [–] 45 points 3 years ago* (1 child)

    USA frooze the National Reserves of Afgahnistan after their Ho Chi Ming City Replay , thereby actually punging Afgahnistan into Starvation crisis und accelerating the switch from Cash Crop to Food Production , this has now increased the Water Use in the helmaz river valley thereby is leading to borderclashes with iran over the water use.

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  • [–] 18 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago)

    Not really. The river was also closed to iran during the american ocupation. In fact the taliban actually released watter at some point. Less than they should have but more than the previous regime.

    The border clashes have nothing to do with that and more to do with the taliban organization being run more like a mcdonalds than a regular state. Sometimes a franchise owner decide they want to invade iran and get into a shootout. But the central command in unaware of that.

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  • [–] 39 points 3 years ago (1 child)

    Last I checked Opium is an excellent cash crop that the Taliban used to fund their guerilla war with the US. Now that the Americans are out there is no point to keep growing it.

    You got a source on that?

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  • [–] 3 points 3 years ago* (last edited 3 years ago) (1 child)
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  • [–] 53 points 3 years ago*

    The source for that claim is entirely from the US state department. Not to mention some expert disputed that claim

    "The estimated all-time high for opium production was set in 2017 at 9,900 tons worth some $1.4 billion in sales by farmers or roughly 7% of Afghanistan's GDP, the UNODC reported."

    "Mansfield says his field studies show the most the Taliban can earn from illicit opiates is about $40 million annually"

    So the Taliban made at most 40 million per year while the entire country (under US occupation and control) made over 1 billion per year

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  • [–] 26 points 3 years ago

    Just search opium in russia or opium in iran. You will see that its a huge problem there. You will also see both countries complaining to the us that they are maliciously increasing opium production.

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