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The Taliban have tapped into this rich resource and it provides them with sufficient cash to pay their soldiers more than the Afghanistan government pays its own troops (Schmidt, 2010, p. 63).
While he Taliban do not "mastermind" the opium trade, Schmidt explains, they do benefit financially from integrating their radical politics into the marketing of opium. In 1999 Afghanistan poppy farmers -- and those that convert the poppies to opium -- produced forty-five tons of opium, about fifteen times what had been produced in any of the previous 15 years. The Taliban use the millions of dollars from the sale of opium to buy new and better weapons, to sponsor new Madrassas (schools that teach radical Islamic politics to young men) in Pakistan, and to "barter for cars and all manner of consumer goods, including houses" (Schmidt, 63).
The Taliban have the financial resources to continue this fight until they once again topple the existing Afghanistan government, and hence, this is one of the biggest problems today in Afghanistan. The Taliban may be fragmented, as the author of this article reports, ripe with gangland-type fighters, fighters loyal to warlords, and known to engage in kidnapping and racketeering, but they are not stupid. They in fact have been stockpiling about "eight thousand tons of opium," which could last their insurgent economy for more than two years in case the Americans decide to eradicate the poppy fields with herbicides, Schmidt continues on page 64.
Following a Taliban attack on a NATO supply column in March, 2012, a U.S. military officer in western Afghanistan said this ambush clearly shows that the Taliban can organize effective and lethal attacks when and where they wish to (Roggio, 2012, p. 1). According to the report from Associated Press reporter Bill Riggio, a force of up to 80 Taliban fighters attacked the NATO convey and killed 7 Afghan guards and 2 Afghan soldiers. Air strikes were called in and an estimated 30 Taliban fighters were killed (Roggio, p. 1).
In conclusion,...
troops out of Afghanistan as quickly as he can. The soldiers being trained to take over from NATO and the Americans are obviously not prepared for the duty, but they will be handed the responsibility nonetheless. The many people living in poverty in Afghanistan are not likely to see better days anytime soon, which is sad but true. And as for the Taliban, they continue to pour over the porous Afghan border with Pakistan, bent on returning to power, which they likely will given the incompetence and corruption within the current Afghanistan leadership.
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(2012) Accessed May 15, 2012, from http://www.npr.org.
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