I guess that's good because you've given us a view of what's going to happen. But, tomorrow night, take a look at the night BBC article. It'll be unanimous, and they'll make the governments look like great heroes.

What worries me most about this development is what's going to happen to South Asian junkies. In Pakistan and Afghanistan, for example, there is some tolerance of heroin use. If they go ahead with the spraying, a lot of people will die from poisoned heroin--I'd say probably a few thousand to 10,000 at least. These are bad junkies who'll do anything for their fix. It won't reach our market because poisoned drugs would ruin the Western market, turn a lot of people off. But the poor of the Subcontinent? They're not going to read this, nor will they have any knowledge of what's being done. Ignorance can do a lot of things.

The other posts were good--the point about driving up the prices appears the most meaningful. I can't say I really can endorse opium, since it is addictive and damaging in the long run. What worries me is that, after viewing the network/standard news articles on Afghanistan, no effort and no money have been put in to reviving and modernizing a desperately poor hideout for terrorists. Spraying crops will do nothing to dampen terrorism in the ideal sense, it will send the Taliban right back into Pakistan, where they can do the most international damage. They will not only farm there--in the Kashmir region which cannot be touched because of India-Pakistan conflicts--they will increase in number and maybe try to overthrow the Pakistan gov't. That's seriously bad because Pakistan has the nuclear bomb.

If Rumsfeld can justify Guantanamo, I think the same reasoning can justify keeping the status quo in Afghanistan. Because keeping Pervez Musharraf in power is probably the only way to ensure US-style stability in the region.

If some country came marching into my homeland and started spraying my fields with chemicals without warning, I would consider that biological warfare. How about you? What would we do if some Iranian prop plane came flying over here and spraying cyanide on our pig farms because they didn't approve of pork? That's right, we would shoot first and stifle all questions later. Did Mr. Walters get permission from Congress first to declare this war on poppies, or does he just have complete carte blanche to do this sort of shit?

And also, from what I understand, the opium poppy is a very sturdy plant. Something tells me that some everyday potion like Roundup probably won't do shit. It's a waste of time, and a complete and total farce, and people in our government and media should be calling them on it.

And one other thing to consider...people in the Middle East are sick and tired of the USA meddling in their homeland. Are the planes that will be spraying this Roundup equipped with any sort of defense system? Because I will tell you this, I won't be a DAMN bit surprised if those Talibans holed up in the mountains shoot down one of those planes with a Stinger missile. Maybe the sight of some burning plane wreckage, with the letters D-E-A on it, on the 6:00 news might finally wake up some of the people in our government to the complete uselessness of this war. It's really sad, but unfortunately I think it will take the DEA's own people dying on national TV in order to shake things up.

Yeah, but we were also supposed to have a "drug-free" society here in the states by now! What a joke!!! Besides, assuming that we won't have had our asses kicked out of Afghanistan within twenty...or five years is being pretty optimistic...

Afghanistan war nears 'tipping point': http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-insurgency9dec09,0,2649427.story?coll=la-home-headlines

With the market flooded with opium and heroin, the U.S. government must be worried about falling prices. If they spray then the price will go up and the government will make even more money. And with NATO troops now in Afghanistan the smuggling routes have likely branced out in all directions.

If they know exactly where those opium plants are and will be able to spray them then why haven't they already burned them or chopped them down? It's because the U.S. government is the biggest illicit drug smuggler on the planet!

It's not just about the oil.

rt on rchandar.

Please Sen Obama stand up if you want to lead------

cuse the Dems like Biden are running for top dog also---

This is such a stupid idea, it's ridiculous! First off, not much farmland in mountainous Afghanistan--spraying isn't going to help farming much, and it'll pollute beyond repair a fragile water supply. (They don't have any money, folks, they can't exactly treat the water and runoff the pesticides). People will die, especially if they're ignorant of the spraying, which is so likely because Afghanistan is extremely poor. The other thing is that drug dealers don't exactly care whether the crop is contaminated or not--they'll sell it, not to you in the West but to Afghans, Pakistanis and Indians who are poor junkies. They will, of course, die.

And where was this "idea" a few years ago, when US forces had "stabilized" Afghanistan? Record crop this year; guess we'll only have to wait "one year" for the "scourge" of poppy production to be lifted from our streets.

Man, I can't believe these people. Just can't believe it. And the US Government is so stupid. They DON'T WANT to solve the problem of heroin, they just want to look good for the cameras and the press! And WHY, exactly, has NO effort been made towards reviving Afghanistan's economy, by supporting free enterprise and industry? What a horrible statement by a backward and miserably immoral US government.