The opium failure of Washington

The American expert believes that the United States was wasted billions allocated to fight Afghan drug dealers

The US government agency, responsible for the restoration of Afghanistan, issued a report that again says that colossal profits from opium trade meaning the development of legal economy and business for Afghans and are jealous of the future of the state. The United States themselves, according to the authors of the document, still pay very little attention to this problem.

The new report issued by the Department of the Special General of the United States on the restoration of Afghanistan (Sigar) is designed to emphasize that the fight against the production and spread of Afghan opium has failed and left the agenda of the US government and the world community when it comes to the future of this country. The head of the Sigar department John Sopko in an interview with Radio Freedom criticized the work of the State Department of the United States, namely, his INL unit, which develops global anti -drug strategy and establish ties between law enforcement agencies and other states:

- The first thing you should do when you take the fight against drugs is to develop a strategic plan. Moreover, one in which there would be meaning. In addition, to counteract the drug trafficking, it is necessary to contact the Afghans and make sure that they have become part of this strategic plan. And they have no general strategy in principle. For all the time, neither I nor my subordinates heard anything from them that would indicate that they have at least some ideas, how to rectify the situation. The so -called US Afghanistan struggle has already spent seven billion, I emphasize billions of dollars. And what, on the regular certification of one of the officials of the State Department, or the Pentagon, or other government agencies, was the fact that for 13 years they could not achieve at least the slightest result in this direction? No, nothing like that!

John Sopko

The report of John Sopko emphasizes that, according to official reports, Washington spent about $ 3 billion only on various law enforcement events in this area - despite the fact that the US Department of Defense Intelligence (DIA) says that all American intelligence agencies manage to intercept and confiscate pure heroin made from pure heroin made from Afghan raw materials, worth no more than 12 million 700 thousand dollars. At the same time, the United States spent more than 73 dollars on the destruction of each hectare of opium poppy in Afghanistan, judging by the contract for a total of 695 million 300 thousand dollars, which the US State Department concluded in 2004-2009 with this purpose with a private American militarized company Dyncorp.

According to the compilers of the report from the Sigar department, more than 410 thousand people are occupied by the production of opium in Afghanistan - these are more jobs than Afghan national security forces (ANSF) , which include the country's armed forces , various police services and local militia detachments. Opium is the most valuable (and almost only) product culture of the country. An indispensable component of large -scale drug trafficking in any region of the world remains the strongest corruption, John Sopko emphasizes:

Opium crops in the province of Kandahar. May 2014

- Drugs will not disappear anywhere on their own, as well as corruption, as they never burst and their connection. If we do not take up the solution to the problem and at the same time do not find the strength to look at the very sad truth in the eye, these troubles will finally break this small unfortunate country.

The new President of Afghanistan Ashraf Gani back in 2003, when he served as Minister of Finance, predicted that his country would soon turn into the "state of drug mafia", deprived of any international support, reminds John Sopko :

- When the drug mafia takes control of the countryside, it is least of all concerned about observing the rights of women and children, issues of democracy and human rights, providing the population with food and assistance to the poor. All they need is to get their own profit.

According to John Sopko , we must not forget that it is precisely the trade in opium and opiates that is the main source of means for the Taliban gaining strength and other radical extremist groups associated with them.

Afghanistan map indicating the volume of the collected opium raw in different provinces in 2013, according to the UN

The new report of the department of the special general general of the United States on the restoration of Afghanistan, however, is not only about the problem of drugs. The authors of the document also paid attention to the decision of the NATO led by international security forces (ISAF) to publish financial statements for the most expensive article of expenses for the restoration of Afghanistan - namely, to show how much money of Western taxpayers and technical means is spent separately for the preparation and maintenance of the fighting of Afghan national security forces. John Sopko considers the decision of the coalition forces the command of the coalition forces, as militants can use this information first of all:

- We always worry when, without a clear necessity, secret data, a year after the year stored by us as a zenitsa of an eye, suddenly pulled out for public display.

John Sopko also stated in an interview with Radio Liberty that he simply could not find an explanation to the recent US military refusal to exclude identified supporters of some groups of militants conducting the armed struggle with the authorities in Kabul, from among the recipients of American government contracts, despite the fact that, as he emphasizes, the US government can and uses the same information for arrests, detention and even destruction of persons, related to the activities of the Taliban in Afghanistan.